BR  45  .B63  1905 

Nichols,  Harry  Peirce,  1850 

1940. 
The  temporary  and  the 

permanent  in  New  Testament  ' 

H^5 


^  ( 

THE  BOHLEN  LECTURES  FOR  1905.     APR  29 

The  Temporary  and  the  Permanent 
In  Hew  Testament  Revelation 


BY     .. 

v/' 

HARRY  PEIRCE  NICHOLS,  D.D. 

RECTOR  HOLY  TRINITY  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK 


NEW      YORK 

THOMAS    WHITTAKER 
2  and  3    Bible  House 


Copyright,  1905, 
By  Thomas  Whittaker. 


A.    G.    SHERWOOD    &    CO, 
PRINTERS  NEW    YORK 


THE   JOHN    BOHLEN    LECTURESHIP. 


John  Bohlen,  who  died  in  Philadelphia  on  the  twenty- 
sixth  day  of  April,  1874,  bequeathed  to  trustees  a  fund 
of  One  Hundred  Thousand  Dollars,  to  be  distributed  to 
religious  and  charitable  objects  in  accordance  with  the 
well-known  wishes  of  the  testator. 

By  a  deed  of  trust,  executed  June  2,  1875,  the  trustees, 
under  the  will  of  Mr.  Bohlen  transferred  and  paid  over 
to  "The  Rector,  Church  Wardens,  and  Vestrymen  of 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Philadelphia,"  in  trust, 
a  sum  of  money  for  certain  designated  purposes,  out  of 
which  fund  the  sum  of  Ten  Thousand  Dollars  was  set 
apart  for  the  endowment  of  The  John  Bohlen  Lecture- 
ship, upon  the  following  terms  and  conditions  : — 

"The  money  shall  be  invested  in  good,  substantial,  and  safe  securi- 
ties, and  held  in  trust  for  a  fund  to  be  called  The  John  Bohlen  Lec- 
tureship; and  the  income  shall  be  applied  annually  to  the  payment  of  a 
qualified  person,  whether  clergyman  or  layman,  for  the  delivery  [and 
publication  of  at  least  one  hundred  copies  of  two  or  more  lecture  ser- 
mons. These  lectures  shall  be  delivered  at  such  time  and  place,  in  the 
city  of  Philadelphia,  as  the  persons  nominated  to  appoint  the  lecturer 
shall  from  time  to  time  determine,  giving  at  least  six  months'  notice  to 
the   person   appointed  to  deliver  the  same,    when  the   same  may  con- 


IV  THE  JOHN  BOHLEN  LECTURESHIP, 

veniently  be  done,  and  in  no  case  selecting  the  same  person  as  lecturer 
a  second  time  within  a  period  of  five  years.  The  payment  shall  be 
made  to  said  lecturer,  after  the  lectures  have  been  printed  and  received 
by  the  trustees,  of  all  the  income  for  the  year  derived  from  said  fund, 
after  defraying  the  expense  of  printing  the  lectures  and  the  other  inci- 
dental expenses  attending  the  same. 

"  The  subject  of  such  lectures  shall  be  such  as  is  within  the  terms 
set  forth  in  the  will  of  the  Rev.  John  Bampton,  for  the  delivery  of  what 
are  known  as  the  '  Bampton  Lectures,'  at  Oxford,  or  any  other  subject 
distinctively  connected  with  or  relating  to  the  Christian  Religion. 

"  The  lecturer  shall  be  appointed  annually  in  the  month  of  May,  or 
as  soon  thereafter  as  can  conveniently  be  done,  by  the  persons  who 
for  the  time  being  shall  hold  the  offices  of  Bishop  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  of  the  Diocese  in  which  is  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Trinity;  the  Rector  of  said  Church;  the  Professor  of  Biblical  Learning, 
the  Professor  of  Systematic  Divinity,  and  the  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical 
History,  in  the  Divinity  School  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
Philadelphia. 

"  In  case  either  of  said  offices  are  vacant,  the  others  may  nominate 
the  lecturer." 

Under  this  trust  the  Reverened  H.  P.  Nichols,  D.  D.  of  New  York, 
N.  Y.  was  appointed  to  deliver  the  lectures  for  the  year  1905. 


CONTENTS. 

LECTURE  I. 

THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT  INHERENT  IN 
REVELATION. 

PAGE 

I.     The  suspected  positions  of  one  age  become  the 

accepted  commonplaces  of  another          .         .       i 
The  temporary  and  permanent  to  be  separated 
on    recognized    principles  ;  the    results  to  be 
appropriated  as  of  foremost  value  for  a  rea- 
sonable Christianity 4 

II.     The  title  may  offend  on  first  hearing. 

The  principle  involved  has  long  been  conceded       5 

III.  The   keynote   of    the  separation  of  temporary 

and  permanent  is  Translation  ...       8 

Duty  to  translate  whatever  is  to  be  kept  alive.  9 
Translation  to  be  applied  to  New  Testament  as 

to  all  other  possessions  of  value  .  .  .13 
The  individual  makes  his  own  by  translation       .     14 

IV.  Universality  another  keynote  of  separation  of 

temporary  and  permanent         .         .         .         .15 
Universality  of  the  Gospel  our  boast          .         .     16 
What  is  of  universal  value  learned  by  discrimina- 
tion.   16 


VI  CONTENTS 


The  universal  discovered  by  degrees          .         .     i8 
Creed  and  Liturgy  constantly  throwing  off  tem- 
porary        24 

V.     The  principle  of  Separation  has  been  already 

admitted 27 

In  New  Testament  times 28 

In  the  history  of  the  Church        .         ,         .         .30 
VI.     Outline  of  the  course  of  lectures         .        ,        .32 


LECTURE  IL 

THE  TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT    IN  A  WRITTEN 
REVELATION. 

I.  Christianity  the  Religion  of  a  Book  ,  .  .34 
The  Church  existed  before  the  Book  ;  and  a 

Revelation  requires  one  to  receive  it  .  .34 
Yet  the  Book    is  the  standard  and  witness  of 

Christianity 35 

The  Book    is   Christianity's   characteristic  and 

glory 37 

II.     The    Book    demands   separation  of  temporary 

from  permanent         ......     40 

Written  in  time  :  its  contents  to  be  determined ; 

to  be  interpreted 40 

The  Canon  illustrates  this  separation  .         .     43 

The  forming  of  the  Canon  a  historical  process  .  44 
Study  of  its  method   confirms  our  faith  in   its 

value 47 


CONTENTS  VU 


III.  Inspiration  of  less  moment  than  canonicity  .  51 
Inspiration  does  not  extend  to  individual  style  .  53 
Does  not  belong  to  all   Scripture  alike.      The 

liturgical  use  of  the  Bible  may  select  and  omit 
the  temporary 55 

IV.  The   separation  of  temporary   and    permanent 

applies  to  interpretation  of  the  Book  ,  .  60 
Every  sacred  book  has  a  partly  earthly,  partly 

heavenly  parentage 62 

Use  of  Old  Testament  by  New  Testament  writers, 

notably  Christ 65 

A  less  fragmentary   view  of   the    Scriptures  is 

growing  .......     69 

V.     What  remains  of  God's  Word  for  God's  people     70 


LECTURE  III. 

THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT  IN  THE 

INCARNATION. 

The  Man  is  behind  the  Book. 

The  Incarnation  is  the  concentreing  fact  of 
thought  and  hope 76 

The  Incarnation  involves  race,  family,  place, 
time,  education,  opportunity  .         .         -77 

The  union  of  the  divine  and  human  is  the  glory 
and  the  difficulty  of  the  Incarnation      .         .     78 

The  Christ  of  History  and  of  Experience  must 
eliminate  temporary  factors  ,         .         .80 

The  divine  Christ  emerges  ,         ,         .         .86 


VI 11  CONTENTS 


II,      These  considerations  have  a  theological  and  a 
practical  bearing. 

1.  Theological 88 

(i)  The  incarnate  Christ  laid  aside  meta- 
physical attributes        ,         .         .         .89 

(2)  Christ's  knowledge  limited  in  the  Incar- 

nation   92 

(3)  The   moral  attributes  undiminished   in 

the  Incarnation 98 

The  virgin  birth    ....   102 

2.  Practical, 

(i)  Our  only  satisfying  knowledge  of  God 

through  Christ 104 

Anthropomorphism         .         .         ,106 
(2)  Imitation  of  God  possible  only  through 

the  Incarnation     ,         .         .         ,         .   108 
Following  Christ  ,         .         ,         ,110 
III.      Our  natural  approach  to   God  by    the    human 

Christ 114 


LECTURE  IV. 

THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT  IN  CHRIST's 
TEACHING, 

I,      Christ's  teaching  a  prominent  factor  of  the  Incar- 
nation       117 

Yet  His  Person  first 117 

Christ's  teaching  involves  inevitable  temporary 

elements 119 

Singularly  free  from  the  temporary  .         .         ,120 


CONTENTS  IX 


II.      General  considerations  on  temporary  and   per- 
manent aspects  of  Christ's  teaching, 

1.  Christ's  teaching  had  an  intelligible  meaning 
for  His  immediate  hearers     ....  123 

2.  Christ  uses  the  language  of  accommodation.  128 

Possession  by  demons 130 

Critical  questions  on  the  old  Testa- 
ment         132 

Argumentum  ad  hominem      .         .         ,         .  132 

3.  Christ  an  oriental  speaking  to  orientals        .   134 

4.  Christ's  teaching  principles,  not  rules         .   137 
Literalism  of  St.  Francis  and  Tolstoi     .    .         .141 

III,      Examples  of  these  general  considerations         .   143 

1.  Characteristic  concrete  passages  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount 145 

Associated  charities         .         .        .  146 
Riches  ,         ,         .         .   148 

2.  The  teaching  of  the  great  Forty  Days         .   149 

Place  of  Church  and  Sacraments  in  Christ's 
teaching 150 

3.  Teaching  about  Sacrifice       ....  155 


LECTURE  V. 

THE      TEMPORARY      AND      THE     PERMANENT     IN     ST.    PAUL's 
THEOLOGY. 

I.     Paul  the  Christian  theologian    ....   160 
A  man  of  his  time     ....  16^ 


CONTENTS 


Roman  citizen 163 

Rabbi-trained  Jew         .         .         ,164 
Paul's  Epistles  a  struggle  to  express  in  words 
the  experiences  of  his  soul      ....  165 

II.  Two  channels  into  which  Paul's  utterance  con- 
strained :  Roman  and  Jewish,  forensic  and 
rabbinic.  Run  into  each  other,  yet  distin- 
guishable. Neither  part  of  Christianity's 
final  form.  All  reasoning  processes  a  neces- 
sary taint  of  temporariness    ....   169 

Paul  saves  his  reasonings  by  doxologies  and 
practical  conclusions 175 

III.  Examples  of  Roman  or  forensic  lines  of  argu- 

ment. 

1.  Adoption  :    its    modern    and    its    Roman 
meaning  .......   179 

2.  Justification  :  both  forensic  and  rabbinic   .   184 

IV.  Examples  of  Jewish  or  rabbinic  lines  of  argu- 

ment. 

Paul  a  rabbi  and  not  a  priest     ....  185 

His  rabbinism  logic  rather  than  theology  .  186 

1.  Rabbinical  dealing  with  facts      .         .         .  188 

2,  Rabbinical  methods  of  exegesis  .         .  190 

V.  Examples  of  practical  instructions  of  a  tem- 
porary character. 

1.  Favorite  figures  of  illustration    .         .         .  195 

2.  Instruction  to  particular  churches      .         .  195 
Women  to  cover  their  heads  in  Corinth      .  196 


CONTENTS  XI 


LECTURE  VI. 

THE    TEMPORARY    AND  THE    PERMANENT    IN  THE  APOCALYP- 
TIC   STYLE, 

PAGE 

The  fact  of  that  style. 

Prevalent  and  popular  in  New  Testament  times  200 

Apocalyptic  style  closely  associated  with 

Eschatological  subjects         ....  202 
The  Apocalyptic  style  marked  by  : 

1.  Use  of  intense,  often  gross  figures. 

2.  Fantastic,  artificial  habit. 

3.  Enigmatic  utterance, 

4.  A  sense  of  superiority. 

5.  Conjuring  by  Phrases         ....  203 
Fastens  on  Christianity  a  grotesque   concep- 
tion of  religion,  disloyal  to  the  Gospel         .  206 

Apocalyptic  style  has  its  value,  as  poetry  and 

vision 210 

II.     Christ's  use  of  the  apocalyptic  style. 

Uses  it  as  current  style  of  the  time         .         .  216 

The  Evangelical  records  exaggerate  Christ's 
apocalyptic  language         ,  ,         ,         ,219 

Christ  teaches  a  delayed  as  well  as  an  imme- 
diate coming 225 

Christ's   apocalyptic    sayings   may   be   inter- 
preted as  being  already  in  fulfilment   .         .  229 

Christ's  coming 

(i)  A  present  fact. 

(2)  A  spiritual  fact, 

(3)  A  progressive  fact. 

(4)  A  fact  conditioned  by  man's  response    230 


Xll  CONTENTS 


III.  Later     New     Testament     writers,    in    their 

apocalyptic  utterance,  share  current  miscon- 
ceptions, must  share  any  helpful  interpreta- 
tion         233 

St.  John  could  hardly  have  written  both  the 
Gospel  and  Book  of  Revelation    .         .         ,   236 

John  touches  the  apocalyptic  word  into  eternal 
meaning.  240 

IV.  The  Mystical  and  the  Practical. 

The  mystical  bridges  over  the  chasm  between 
the  Apocalyptic  and  the  Practical         .         ,  242 


LECTURE  I. 

THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT  INHERENT 
IN  REVELATION. 

I.  The  positions  of  one  age,  held  in  suspicion 
merely  because  they  are  new,  become  the  easily 
accepted  commonplaces  of  another  age.  The 
ceremonial  which  to  a  former  generation  seemed 
elaborate,  the  mark  of  an  advanced  school,  is 
everywhere  in  use  without  question,  and  with- 
out fear.  The  current  beliefs  of  Christian  peo- 
ple put  suddenly  by  the  side  of  beliefs  obtaining 
in  the  middle  of  the  last  century  are  a  surprising 
revelation  of  a  forward  movement,  a  progress 
made  unconsciously,  yet  accepted  without  hesi- 
tation. While  the  movement  is  in  course  there 
is  inevitable  pain  and  anxiety. 

It  belongs  to  those  who  stand  in  the  place  of 
leadership,  whether  as  thinkers  or  administra- 
tors,   both    to   realize   this    constant    movement 


2  THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

themselves  and  to  discover  the  principles  that 
underlie  its  healthy  advance.  It  Is  for  them,  and 
among  these  we  must  class  ourselves,  as  well 
from  our  education  as  from  our  ministerial 
office,  in  view  of  what  the  history  of  religious 
progress  has  taught,  to  take  up  such  study  with 
good  cheer  and  to  disarm  the  prejudices  of 
others.  These  changes  are  certain.  They  result 
in  larger  vision  of  truth  and  of  service.  Men 
busied  in  their  investigation  are  put  in  trust  of 
their  value.  By  their  own  hopefulness  concern- 
ing the  issue,  as  well  as  by  their  own  moderation 
in  statement,  they  may  offset  the  natural  dis- 
trust of  the  mass  of  Christian  people,  may  make 
the  inevitable  revolution  so  peaceful  that  all 
shall  gratefully  share  its  blessings.  Despite  the 
alarm  and  even  the  dangers  involved  in  these 
progressive  investigations,  it  is  not  only  our 
duty  to  undertake  them,  but  we  have  the  ability 
to  carry  them  through  to  an  honorable  issue. 
For  this  we  have  been  prepared  by  the  study  of 
history,  wherein  we  see  these  processes  ever 
going  on,  and    by  the   breadth   of  vision   which 


INHERENT  IN  REVEIATION 


comes  with  all  scholarship.  Courage  in  the 
work,  confidence  in  the  result,  consideration  for 
the  fears  and  ignorance  of  others  as  the  process 
goes  on, — these  are  the  works  demanded  of 
devout  scholarship  to-day.  To  such  service 
these  lectures  bid  you,  by  your  sympathetic 
interest,  to  make  your  willing  contribution.  We 
may  be  able  at  least  to  blaze  the  way  along 
which  others  shall  clear  a  road  for  Christian 
thought  to  travel. 

There  are  three  classes  of  questions  that 
enlist  the  interest  of  Christian  people :  social 
questions  ;  philosophical  questions,  the  being  of 
God,  the  person  of  Christ,  the  relation  of  sin  to 
salvation  ;  critical  questions,  involving  the  origin, 
interpretation  and  value  of  the  Scriptures. 

My  subject  ranges  itself  with  the  last  of  these. 
The  place  of  the  Scriptures,  specially  of  the 
New  Testament,  is  a  fundamental  one  for  Chris- 
tian thinking  and  Christian  service.  The  records 
of  fact  and  truth  by  Apostolic  men  are  the  key 
to  Christianity.  How  people  to-day  are  to  use 
that  key.  Christian  scholarship  must  discover. 


4  THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

The  Temporary  and  the  Permanent  in  New 
Testament  Revelation  is  the  inquiry  of  these 
lectures.  In  no  critical  direction  do  I  see 
greater  help  than  in  such  an  inquiry.  The  fact 
of  these  two  elements,  a  temporary  and  a  per- 
manent in  revelation,  is  first  to  be  admitted. 
Principles  are  to  be  sought  by  which  these  ele- 
ments are  to  be  distinguished.  The  help  in 
such  discrimination  for  an  intelligent  and  rea- 
sonable Christianity  Is  to  be  set  forth.  And  all 
along,  not  alone  must  prejudice  be  disarmed  by 
sympathy  and  reverence,  but  approval  wait  on 
the  results  to  receive  their  blessing.  Such  is 
one's  preconception  in  favor  of  his  chosen 
theme,  I  cannot  but  feel  that  in  the  discrimina- 
tion between  the  temporary  and  the  permanent 
features  in  our  Christian  heritage  lies  the  future 
of  Christianity.  I  would  magnify  the  import- 
ance of  the  subject  and  make  it  honorable. 
*'Back  to  Christ"  is  the  watchword  of  Christian 
thinking  and  Christian  living  to-day  ;  the  Christ 
recovered  must  be  the  permanent  Christ  out 
from  the  temporary,  else,  as  in  so  many  experi- 


INHERENT  IN  REVELATION  5 

ences  heretofore,  the  issue  will  be  fanaticism  and 
new  discouragement.  The  whole  attitude  of 
the  Christian  religion,  intellectual  and  practical, 
is  moulded  by  the  apocalyptic  style  of  the 
Gospels  and  other  New  Testament  literature  ; 
by  the  theology  of  Paul's  Epistles  ;  how  far  are 
style  and  reasoning  part  of  the  permanent 
treasure  of  the  Christian  Church  ? 

The  temporary  and  the  permanent  in  New 
Testament  revelation. 

II.  The  title  of  these  lectures  may  offend  on 
first  hearing.  In  God's  revelation  of  Himself, 
certainly  in  the  New  Testament,  there  is  no 
temporary  ;  all  is  permanent.  This  was  the 
conviction  of  an  earlier  age.  It  has  come  to  us 
as  a  traditional  prejudice.  Yet,  if  on  examina- 
tion we  find  that  in  the  history  of  interpretation 
as  well  as  in  our  own  study  some  principle  of 
discrimination  between  temporary  and  per- 
manent has  been  admitted,  we  must  first  cor- 
dially concede  the  fact  in  the  face  of  our 
prejudices  and  our  fears  :  its  application,  while 
it  may  be  difficult  and  disturbing,  will  then  wait 


6  THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

on  our  honest  inquiry.  To  be  unwilling  to  test 
our  own  convictions,  and  to  analyze  the  real 
basis  of  our  beliefs,  to  be  unwilling  to  acknowl- 
edge the  party  to  be  wrong  in  order  to  save  the 
cause,  is  the  last  infirmity  of  earnest  and  devout 
minds.  There  is,  to  be  sure,  a  passing  regret, 
excusable  enough,  that  things  cannot  go  on  just 
the  same,  that  all  men  cannot  continue  to  think 
as  they  used  to  when,  for  example,  we  were 
young.  But  this  is  impossible.  Men  have 
never  kept  on  thinking  the  same,  and  they 
never  will.  The  last  word  has  not  been  said, 
and  never  ought  to  be.  God's  man  faces  the 
fact  with  cheerful  hope,  even  though  he  sup- 
press a  sigh.  The  theme  may  be  new  in  its 
statement ;  but  if  its  principle  be  found  one 
already  accepted  and  acted  upon,  the  brave 
Christian  and  scholar  will  take  it  and  use  it  in 
the  service  of  truth.  He  is  confident  of  nothing 
so  surely  as  that  truth  reverently  pursued  will 
give  new  cause  to  thank  God,  and  to  believe  in 
Christ.  ''  Seeing  then  that  we  have  such  hope 
we  use  great  plainness  of  speech,"  * 
*  II  Cor.  Ill  :  12. 


INHERENT  IN  REVELATION 


Our  aim,  then,  is  to  realize  and  acknowledge 
the  fact  of  temporary  elements  in  the  New 
Testament  ;  to  cite  illustrations  ;  to  discover,  if 
we  may,  principles  by  which  the  permanent  may 
be  discriminated  and  preserved ;  and  to  find 
fresh  reason  in  this  investigation  for  courageous 
and  grateful  loyalty  to  the  revealed  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Our  study  will  be  critical,  not 
in  the  sense  of  literary  criticism — a  work  so 
admirably  performed  by  Prof.  Moulton — nor  in 
the  sense  of  the  so-called  higher  criticism,  the 
determining  of  dates  and  authors — a  work  in  the 
process  of  settlement  in  our  age  from  whose 
results  no  thoughtful  man  is  finding  cause  to 
shrink  back  in  alarm.  Ours  is  an  interpretation 
of  critical  work  already  accepted,  a  making 
results  real  and  applying  them  to  living  Chris- 
tianity. 

It  is  manifest  that  no  more  important  inquiry 
is  opening  out  before  Christian  thoughtfulness 
than  the  elimination  of  any  temporary  element 
from  New  Testament  Revelation.  That  revela- 
tion is  unique  :  in  its  message  of  hope  ;  in  the 


8  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Figure  it  offers  for  our  discipleship.  What  it 
has  to  give  of  permanent  value  to  the  world  we 
are  all  coming  to  feel  is  the  world's  great  prize. 
Back  to  the  Master  pictured  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment are  coming  not  only  theology  and  philoso- 
phy, but  the  races  and  the  religions  and  the 
social  classes  of  men.  We  may  not  dare  hide 
that  universal  Figure  under  either  our  present- 
day  interpretations  or  the  incidental  drapery  of 
His  own  time.  The  problem  is  an  ever  fresh 
one  how  to  find  the  abiding  spiritual  in  the  pass- 
ing historical. 

III.  The  keynote  of  the  separation  of  the 
temporary  and  permanent  may  find  expression  in 
the  pregnant  word  Translation.  The  word  has 
a  richer  meaning  than  the  mere  rendering  from 
one  language  to  another.  All  man's  inner  life, 
intellectual  and  spiritual,  is  a  translation  from 
something  less  real,  of  less  moment,  though 
called  natural  and  coming  easily,  to  something 
more  true  and  abiding,  even  to  the  perfect.  A 
spoken  word,  a  written  word,  a  life  lived  some- 
when  and  somewhere,  a  truth  discovered   in  the 


INHERENT  IN  REVELATION 


germ,  all  must  be  translated.  So  the  tem- 
porary, the  incidental,  is  thrown  one  side,  the 
permanent  emerges.  Man's  insight,  apprehen- 
sion, appropriation  is  the  prime  factor  in  per- 
manency, in  making  of  the  thing  once  presented 
something  that  may  live  on  for  other  and  wiser 
times.  Admit  the  need  of  translation,  and  we 
do  admit  it  with  every  spoken  and  written  and 
lived  word  whose  first  incarnation  is  foreign  to 
us,  we  have  admitted  the  temporary  feature  in 
the  permanent.  Another  tongue,  another  time, 
must  make  the  truth  its  own. 

Abiding  things  never  appear  to  man  in  a  pure 
and  isolated  state.  Thouorht  must  incarnate 
itself  in  language  to  live.  "  Words  cannot  be 
identified  with  thought,"  says  Sabatier  in  one 
of  his  latest  works,  **  but  they  are  necessary  to  it. 
The  hero  in  the  romance  who  was  said  to  be 
unable  to  think  without  speaking  was  not  so 
ridiculous  as  was  once  supposed,  for  that  hero 
is    everybody."*       The    orthodox    Moslem    will 


*  Sabatier,  Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Religion,  249- 
50. 


lO  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

not  listen  to  translation.  Not  only  is  the  Koran 
inspired  in  its  every  word ;  its  Arab  Avord  is 
alone  inspired ;  and  this  when  Arabic  has 
become  absolutely  unintelligible  in  the  conquest 
of  new  races  to  Moslem  allegiance.  The  Veda 
and  Avesta  are  worshipped  after  a  like  petrified 
fashion.  A  kindred  fetichism  is  the  old  belief 
that  Hebrew  was  the  language  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  and  that  the  Church's  lessons  should  be 
read  in  a  monotone  lest  man's  interpretation  be 
intruded  into  God's  word.  The  early  Christians 
translated  the  Scriptures  freely  into  Syriac, 
Latin,  Coptic,  into  the  language  of  every  peo- 
ple to  whom  they  preached  the  good  news  of 
their  Gospel.  There  came  a  time  when  the 
translation  of  each  ethnic  church  was  itself 
deemed  untranslatable ;  the  Ethiopians,  for 
example,  applying  the  theory  of  verbal  inspira- 
tion to  their  barbarous  and  unintelligible  version 
of  the  Scriptures.*     It  was  an  easy  step  for  the 


*  Peters.     The  Old  Testament  and  the  New  Scholar- 
ship, 83-84. 


INHERENT  IN  RE  VELA  TION  1 1 

Latin  Church  to  refuse  the  Scriptures  to  the 
laity.  A  passing  phase  was  enshrined  as  per- 
manent, and  bhndly  worshipped.  The  striking 
fact  remains,  however,  that  a  principle  of  transla- 
tion, of  discovering  the  permanent  out  of  the 
temporary,  had  been  first  admitted  and  then 
abandoned.  Lost  in  the  Dark  Ages,  translation 
becomes  anew  the  touchstone  of  a  living  faith, 
translation  not  merely  into  the  new  tongues 
but  into  the  new  life  and  new  hopes  of  "the 
nations  and  peoples  called  of  God  into  the 
Unity  of  His  Church." 

It  is  man's  business  as  an  intelligent  and 
responsible  being  to  pass  on  the  gifts  of  his  time, 
its  thought  and  its  truth,  to  those  who  follow. 
They  cannot  be  passed  on  as  a  sealed  and  en- 
shrined deposit.  They  must  come  to  the  next 
age  open  and  instinct  with  life.  No  age,  not 
even  that  of  the  New  Testament,  has  a  monop- 
oly of  gifts.  Its  gifts  were  rare,  were  invalu- 
able ;  they  were  bestowed  upon  the  ages  as  a 
trust  to  be  handed  on,  to  be  translated  and  re- 
translated for  every  age   to  come.      It  Is  asked, 


12  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Where  would  an  apostle  or  early  saint  feel  at 
home,  in  creed  and  ceremonial,  were  he  to  come 
suddenly  into  our  modern  Christian  thought  and 
life?  Nowhere,  we  may  answer,  if  he  came  stid- 
denly  ;  unless  in  some  church,  or  chapel,  or  creed 
that  has  isolated  itself  from  the  movinor  Chris- 
tian  current,  and  been  left  forlorn,  its  privileges 
forfeited  because  it  has  failed  to  translate  them.  * 
We  may  be  sure  that  St.  Paul  and  St.  Paul's 
Master,  were  they  to  come  among  us  again, 
would  rejoice  wherever  they  found  a  living  faith 
discovering  and  applying  the  revealed  word  as 
an  eternal  word.  "  The  most  destructive  thing 
in  the  world,  because  the  most  contrary  to  nature, 
is  the  strain  to  keep  things  fixed."  To  keep  the 
old  forms  without  new  adaptation,  or  to  keep 
fixed  interpretations  for  forms  that  have  become 
endeared  by  ages  of  reverent  use,  is  to  act  as 
unbelievers  in  a  living  Christ  for  living  men. 
The  kernel  is  ever  to  be  found  within  the  husk, 
to  use  a  vigorous  figure  of  to-day's  exegesis,  the 


*  Bartlett.     The  Letter  and  the  Spirit,  15 1-2. 


INHERENT  IN  REVELATION  1 3 

husk  be  left  to  perish,  or  if  preserved,  kept  only 
for  antiquarian  honor. 

These  principles  embodied  in  the  word  trans- 
lation, are  so  evident  and  so  universally  accepted, 
it  may  seem  gratuitous  to  repeat  and  emphasize 
them.  May  they  not  be  taken  for  granted,  and 
we  pass  on  ?  Yet,  the  taking  for  granted  often 
needs  to  be  brought  home,  the  truth  freely 
admitted  elsewhere  to  be  courageously  applied 
in  directions  where  men  hesitate.  ''  I  freely 
admit  temporary  elements  in  all  religion  and  the 
necessity  of  rescuing  the  permanent  from  their 
swaddling  bands  ;  I  am,  of  course,  prepared  to 
concede  the  temporary  character  of  much  of 
what  we  find  in  the  Old  Testament,"  says  a 
thoughtful  and  devout  scholar  to  me,  ''but  I 
certainly  hesitate  to  apply  that  principle  to  the 
New  Testament.  That  is  a  revelation  given 
once  for  all,  yet  for  all  time."  We  do  well  to 
hesitate  in  applying  results  of  unquestionable 
value  for  all  other  human  possessions,  even  for 
the  preparatory  revelation  of  God  Himself,  to 
this  final  gift  from    God  seen  in    Jesus  Christ. 


14         THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 


Yet  the  reasonings  hold  good  for  the  New  Tes- 
tament as  well,  if  that  revelation  comes  that  it 
may  be  one  of  man's  possessions,  though  it  be 
the  best  and  greatest  of  them  ;  comes  in  human 
ways  to  human  apprehension. 

The  individual  steps  forth  In  each  age  to  make 
the  revelation  his  own,  and  the  individual  must 
do  a  final  translating  work.  Revelation  implies 
a  receiving  spirit.  Revelation  must  have  a  re- 
sponse in  man,  not  as  a  measure  of  the  revela- 
tion, but  to  apprehend  it.  Without  that  response 
there  is  no  revelation ;  for  the  revelation  is  not 
an  abstraction,  something  existing  of  itself,  it  is 
an  intelligible  word  to  an  apprehending  soul. 
The  soul  must  make  it  his  own.  God  does 
nothing  which  concerns  man's  well-being  apart 
from  man  himself.  "  God  does  not  begin,"  it 
has  been  admirably  said,  *'  where  man  leaves  off; 
we  need  not  sit  with  our  hands  folded  to  hearken 
what  he  will  say  concerning  us."  *  We  put  our- 
selves into  the  attitude  of  hearers,  of  helpers  of 


*  Canon  Inge  on  the  Inspiration  of  the  Individual. 


INHERENT  IN  REVEL  A  TION  I  5 

the  revelation.  The  human  reception  puts  the 
changing  temporary  element  face  to  face  with 
the  divine  permanency.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
what  it  is  possible  for  God  to  give,  but  of  what 
it  is  possible  to  make  our  own.  Man  can  receive 
from  God  what  he  has  an  Intuitive  power  to 
grasp.  That  is  the  divine  side  of  man's  knowl- 
edge. "  All  reasoned  conviction/'  says  Marti- 
neau,  "  Is  human  ;  immediate  Intuition  Is  divine."  * 
Intuition  Is  man's  last  attitude  toward  a  word  of 
God.  That  intuitive  attitude  is  not  reached  till 
sense  and  reason  have  done  their  necessary  work, 
till  the  man  has  heard  the  voice  in  a  language 
that  he  can  understand  and  so  Is  prepared  to 
recognize  that  the  voice  is  none  other  than  the 
Voice  of  God.  A  Revelation  given  once  for  all 
within  human  limitations  must  be  appropriated 
of  man,  age  after  age,  according  to  his  time  and 
race  and  tongue,  according  to  his  place  in  the 
developing  order. 

IV.   Further,  If  Christianity  is  a  ttniversal  reli- 
gion. If  the  New  Testament  has  a  message  for  all 


*  Martineau's  Seat  of  Authority  320-21, 


1 6         THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

races  of  men  in  all  time,  there  must  be  a  separa- 
tion of  the  permanent  from  the  temporary  in  its 
revelation  of  truth.  As  Translation  is  one  key- 
note in  the  evolution  of  the  permanent  from  the 
temporary  elements  in  revelation,  translation 
into  the  language  and  thought  of  another  time, 
translation  into  the  receptivity  of  the  individual, 
Universality  is  another  such  note.  Its  universal 
character  is  shown  as  we  put  its  local  limitations 
one  side. 

The  universal  application  of  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  our  gladness  and  our  boast.  It  is 
the  stronghold  of  missionary  effort.  It  is  the 
basis  of  our  superior  confidence  in  the  religion 
of  Christ  as  compared  with  ethnic  religions. 
That  confidence  perishes  if  features  appropriate 
to  its  first  promulgation  are  to  be  imposed  upon 
all  times  and  races.  If  baptism  in  any  given 
amount  of  water  be  of  the  essence  of  the 
regenerating  sacrament,  then  the  Christian 
religion  must  be  limited  in  country  and  climate. 

What  is  of  universal  value  is  to  be  ascertained 
by    discrimination.     It    is    the    business    of   the 


INHERENT  IN  RE  VELA  TION  1 7 

religious  man,  of  the  man  concerned  with  char- 
acter-making, to  distinguish  differences,  to  sift 
that  he  may  save  what  is  worth  saving.  He 
may  not  accept  things  in  the  bulk,  as  they  are, 
if  he  be  in  trust  of  a  possession  for  all  mankind. 
He  cannot  stop  with  Leviticus  or  John  Baptist 
or  Judaizing  Christianity,  though  each  serve  as 
ushers  to  fuller  truth.  God  reveals  Himself  to 
mankind  as  a  whole  by  degrees  ;  the  universal 
features  of  His  revelation  are  to  be  tested  by 
devout  inquiry  and  consecrated  experience. 
Christianity  bids  a  man,  as  he  stands  in  trust 
for  the  race,  to  decide  between  differences  and 
keep  what  is  to  be  kept.  It  bids  him  realize 
that  truth  and  duty  are  not  all  clear,  nor  on  the 
surface ;  that  there  are  reasons  both  ways,  that 
no  one  can  be  compelled  to  be  good,  that  there 
is  always  escape  to  the  other  alternative,*  that 
there  Is  something  to  find  and  when  found  to 
hold  on  to.  It  proclaims  that  the  inner  man, 
the  individual  inner  man.  Is  the  ultimate  author- 


*  Latham's  Pastor  Pastorum  24,  passim. 


1 8  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

ity,  and  if  that  authority  proclaims  a  truth  or  a 
duty  to  be  unquestionable  believe  it  and  do  it 
the  man  must,  though  he  stand  alone  in  the 
universe  with  God  as  he  knows  Him.  It  avows 
at  last  that  behind  Holy  Scripture  is  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  is  heard  of  all 
men  in  all  ages  whispering  God's  way  and  will, 
whispering  even  the  meaning  of  God's  Revela- 
tion made  in  His  Son.  The  universal  man  will 
bring  this  universal  test  to  revealed  truth,  using 
all  the  light  that  all  the  ages  have  given  to 
make  revelation  plain  to  him,  to  save  him  from 
his  own  ignorance  and  pride. 

If  a  religion  is  universal,  temporary  features 
are  to  be  looked  for  in  its  revelation.  Only  the 
limited  says  at  once  all  it  has  to  say.  We  find 
as  fact  that  the  method  of  the  Universal  Father 
unfolding  His  counsels  has  been  to  speak  first 
to  a  family,  a  tribe,  a  race  ;  to  use  an  individual, 
a  group,  a  Church,  as  the  medium  of  his  mes- 
sage. What  is  thought  at  first  to  be  one'  sown 
is  found  to  be  too  large,  too  deep  to  be  kept  as 
an    exclusive    possession ;    demands    translation, 


INHERENT  IN  REVELATION 


expansion  ;  is  held  in  trust  to  be  shared  with 
others  and  adapted  for  their  use.  Its  universal- 
ity is  a  discovery,  hardly  suspected  till  its  value 
is  found  not  to  be  satisfied  by  its  first  meaning 
and  use.  This  has  been  a  process  shared  alike 
by  prophecies  uttered  in  the  old  dispensation 
and  by  words  of  Christ  spoken  in  the  new. 
Proclaimed  at  the  outset  as  universal  they  would 
neither  have  been  accepted  nor  understood. 
Their  universality  is  a  process  both  of  realiza- 
tion and  of  adaptation. 

No  institution,  no  Bible  has  any  value  apart 
from  its  serviceableness  to  men  ;  it  proves  its 
right  to  exist  by  its  power  of  adaptation.  This 
power  of  adaptation  is  the  very  proof  that  the 
Christian  religion  is  universal.  If  Christianity 
had  been  what  many  have  again  and  again 
claimed  she  was,  tied  to  some  perishable  dogma, 
affiliated  to  some  political  notion,  bound  fast  to 
some  ecclesiastical  or  social  organization  ;  if  her 
truth  had  crystallized  the  hard  creed  of  the 
Donatists,  if  her  politics  had  become  linked 
with  the  divine  right  of  kings,  if  her  social  order 


20  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMAAENT 

had  adopted  the  cult  of  the  ascetic  or  the 
leveler — proof  texts  for  all  these  to  be  found  by 
the  worshipper  of  the  letter  as  itself  permanent 
and  untranslatable — she  would  ere  this  have 
either  perished  as  valueless  or  survived  only  as 
the  property  of  the  bigot.*  A  downward  ten- 
dency inheres  in  all  human  systems,  a  tendency 
to  become  narrow  and  preempted.  A  divine 
gift  for  mankind  must  be  able  to  bear  the  search- 
ing light  of  criticism,  the  white  light  of  public- 
ity. The  permanent  can  stand  it,  comes  out 
more  precious.  Behold  !  how  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  passing  on  through  the  ages,  receiving 
from  each  their  characteristic  homage.  We 
creatures  of  a  day  would  enshrine  Him  as  our 
own  peculiar  possession  ;  He  breaks  through  the 
graveclothes  to  be  the  living  Lord  of  living  men. 
This  universal  character  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, at  once  our  proud  claim  and  its  distinctive 
mark,  brings  on  the  separation  of  the  temporary 
from  the  permanent  elements  in  its  presentation. 
The  New  Testament  Revelation  cannot  survive, 


*  Bartlett,  Letter  and  Spirit,  126, 


INHERENT  IN  REVELATION  21 

save  as  an  historic  monument,  unless  this  dis- 
tinction is  both  realized  and  applied.  Christ 
Himself  will  survive,  for  the  New  Testament 
may  be  said  to  be  no  longer  essential  to  man's 
knowledge  of  Him.  He  has  been  discovered  as 
greater  than  the  records  about  Him.  While  we 
return  to  that  record  to  confirm  our  picture,  we 
find  Him  not  entombed  in  its  pages  but  shining 
forth  from  them.  Christ  could  live  on,  the 
Gospel  could  live  on,  were  the  Gospels  as  the 
story  of  His  Life  to  perish.  It  is  well  for  us  to 
realize  that  neither  on  the  Church  nor  on  the 
Scripture  rests  the  preservation  of  Christ  for 
man,  however  essential  heretofore  has  been 
their  witness.  Christ's  life  has  been  now  written 
on  the  tablets  of  the  heart.  The  loss  of  the 
records,  the  failure  of  the  Church  would  be 
grave,  it  would  not  be  ruinous. 

Each  age  asks.  Is  the  Christian  Religion 
doomed  because  incapable  of  adapting  itself  to 
changing  conditions  ?  The  answer  sometimes 
seems  to  be.  Yes,  because  men  have  made  the 
temporary    features    permanent,     have     bound 


22         THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

inseparably  together  the  universal  and  the  per- 
ishable. Religion  itself  can  never  perish. 
Where  do  you  find  the  religion  for  man  ? 
Christians  are  put  on  the  defensive  to  show  that 
the  religion  to  survive  is  the  religion  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  given  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Man  is  incorrigibly  religious  ;  shall  his 
relio-ion  continue  to  be  the  reliction  of  the 
Gospel  ?  The  very  condition  of  life  is  adapta- 
tion to  environment.  ''  If  the  age  has  not  lost 
faith,"  writes  Bishop  Boyd  Carpenter  in  his 
Bampton  Lectures,  "  has  it  lost  faith  in  religion, 
and  is  Christianity  slowly  taking  the  place 
among  extinct  things,  like  the  flora  and  fauna  of 
earlier  times,  doomed  because  lacking  power  to 
adapt  itself  to  changed  conditions  ?  "  *  Christi- 
anity did  so  adapt  itself  in  the  earliest  Christian 
ages,  despite  the  panic  fear  of  conservative 
Judaizers ;  and  carried  as  champions  of  its 
adaptation  conservatives  like  Peter  and  James. 
The  story  of  the  elimination  of  the  temporary  is 


*  The  Permanent  Elements  of  Religion.     Boyd  Carpen- 
ter, 4. 


INHERENT  IN  REVELATION  23 

recorded  step  by  step  in  the  very  New  Testa- 
ment record  itself.  It  is  a  failure  to  share  the 
faith  and  courage  of  New  Testament  men  to 
hesitate  to  continue  that  separating  process,  to 
pronounce  the  work  complete  at  any  stage  earlier 
or  later.  Those  men  faced  in  their  adaptations 
a  weight  of  traditionalism,  both  without  and  in 
their  own  hearts,  which  leaves  us  timid  and  faith- 
less in  even  our  radicalism.  "  Man's  permanent 
spiritual  demand,"  says  the  Bampton  lecturer, 
''is  for  Dependence,  Fellowship  and  Progress."* 
It  is  for  us  to  determine  whether  these  demands 
are  met  in  the  New  Testament  and  by  what 
wise  reading  thereof  they  are  to  be  discovered 
and  retained. 

We  talk  of  the  Everlasting  Gospel,  but  it  is 
not  its  form  that  is  everlasting,  but  the  spirit 
behind  the  form.  Revealed  religion  has  its  value, 
but  that  value  is  not  to  relieve  man  from  the 
duty  of  thinking  ;  to  give  him  nourishment 
already    elaborated,  requiring  neither  digestion 


*  Boyd  Carpenter,  Chap.  II. 


24         THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

nor  assimilation.  That  were  to  empty  revelation 
of  beauty  and  cut  man  off  from  development. 
*'  Natural  Religion,"  says  Martineau,  '*  repre- 
sents God,  stands  for  Him,  manifests  Him  ; 
Revealed  Religion  presents  God,  brings  Him 
into  man's  immediate  presence."  *  Yet  it  does 
not  save  man  from  the  duty  of  recognizing  and 
appropriating  the  revelation  when  made. 

Theology,  the  science  of  God,  is  permanent 
truth  reached  from  temporary.  In  theology  we 
are  ever  sloughing  off  temporary  features  to  find 
the  everlasting  God.  Transient  doubts  give 
way  to  permanent  spiritual  convictions  by  tenta- 
tive processes,  by  embodiment  in  successive  and 
passing  formulae,  by  the  assertion  of  the  eternal 
Yea  over  the  passing  Nay. 

The  Church,  as  the  society  of  God's  children, 
is  finding  in  her  historic  creeds  and  liturgies  the 
permanent  out  from  the  temporary.  Men  must 
make  symbols  individually  real,  lest  the  genera- 
tion  be  orthodox  and  not  pious.     The   historic 


*  Jackson^s  Martineau,  257. 


INHERENT  IN  RE  VELA  TION  2  5 

creeds  themselves  are  not  in  the  words  of  the 
New  Testament.  They  appeal  for  their  vindi- 
cation to  the  New  Testament.  They  aim  to 
utter  nothing  that  can  not  be  proved  from  sacred 
Scripture.  Not  only  do  the  creeds  incorporate 
other  language  than  that  of  the  New  Testament 
in  their  expression  of  faith ;  they  also  lay  new 
emphasis,  enlarging  on  truths  on  which  Scripture 
utters  but  a  brief  word  or  makes  but  a  hint. 
The  creeds  were  composed,  as  the  New  Testa- 
ment books  were  written,  all  honest  thinking 
now  agrees,  to  answer  the  questions  of  their 
time.  The  answers  are  given  in  the  language 
and  after  the  light  of  the  time  itself.  They  are 
to  be  translated  into  the  language  of  each  age 
for  universal  illumination.  We  must  be  as  fear- 
less, while  we  are  as  reverent,  as  the  framers  of 
the  creeds.  As  they  dealt  with  the  Scripture,  so 
may  we.  As  they  dealt  with  the  sacred  for- 
mulae come  down  to  them  from  Apostolic  men, 
so  may  we  deal  with  the  formulae  they  have 
handed  on  to  us.  The  spirit  that  guided  them 
still  guides  the  Church,  and  it  is  the  same  Spirit 


26  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

which  was  promised  by  the  Master  to  His 
immediate  disciples.  We  may  not  rewrite 
Scripture,  though  each  generation  has  its 
version,  and  rejoices  courageously  when  its 
version  better  expresses  the  Scripture  word, 
though  the  new  expression  overthrow  cherished 
ideas.  We  may  not  rewrite  the  historic  creeds 
(in  some  paragraphs  we  honestly  wish  we  might), 
both  because  Christendom  is  divided  and  can 
never  be  brought  to  agree  on  any  change,  and 
because  they  are  liturgical  hymns  of  praise 
endeared  to  Christian  people  in  their  very  lan- 
guage by  generations  of  use.  But  we  may  explain, 
paraphrase,  interpret,  translate,  for  our  children 
and  our  time.  We  may  find  the  eternal  truths 
under  their  fleeting  expression,  truths  as  dear  to 
us  as  to  the  original  formulators,  though  our 
explanation  be  otherwise — the  truths  of  the 
Eternal  God,  of  the  Incarnate  Son  taking  our 
complete  human  nature  even  into  the  realms  of 
the  dead,  to  whom  as  risen  Lord  is  committed 
all  judgment  and  authority ;  of  continued  con- 
scious  identity,  the    spirit   being   clothed  upon 


INHERENT  IN  RE  VELA  TION  ^  f 

with  a  body,  we  affirm  not  how,  preferring  the 
reticence  of  St.  Paul  to  the  confident  materiaHsm 
of  a  less  thoughtful  time. 

V.  These  are  the  considerations  to  which  I 
invite  you  in  this  course  of  lectures.  My  hope  is 
that  we  may  be  wise  enough  and  brave  enough 
and  trustful  enough  to  recognize  as  a  principle  the 
distinction  between  permanent  and  temporary 
in  our  New  Testament  Charter.  The  principle 
admitted,  we  may  go  on  to  apply  it  and  to  start 
applications  for  others  to  work  out.  The  prin- 
ciple is  already  admitted  by  the  process  of 
Translation  to  which  we  have  submitted  our 
sacred  documents  in  every  age  and  land,  and  to 
which  we  are  increasingly  bringing  the  symbols 
and  ceremonial  of  the  Christian  Church.  The 
principle  is  essential  to  our  proud  boast  that 
Christianity  is  for  all  men  of  all  time.  In  it 
is  wrapped  up  the  opportunities  of  Christian 
scholarship  and  the  hopes  of  Christian  aspiration 
for  the  days  immediately  before  us. 

Though  the  subject  may  seem  to  be  and  has 
been  spoken   of  as  new,  like  all  inquiries  after 


28  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

truth  it  has  had  its  times  of  advocacy,  it  is 
involved  in  many  subordinate  religious  subjects 
whose  pursuit  has  been  carried  afar.  Many 
skillful  and  honored  hands  have  undertaken  tasks 
involving  this  supreme  distinction,  from  whose 
results  the  Church  has  realized  invaluable  bene- 
fit, though  failing  to  apply  the  truth  for  them- 
selves, or  to  honor  its  fearless  advocacy. 

The  history  of  Christianity  has  been  the  story 
of  man's  constant  effort,  in  his  wisest  and  most 
earnest  representatives,  to  separate  and  to 
transmit  the  permanent  elements  in  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  The  temporary  has  constantly 
had  to  give  way.  The  timid  have  ever  feared 
lest  in  the  process  the  ark  of  God  should  fall. 
Recall,  for  a  concluding  moment,  the  story  of 
such  work. 

In  the  establishment  of  Christianity,  as  re- 
corded in  the  book  of  Acts,  the  original  disci- 
ples proved  unable  to  shake  off  the  fetters  of  a 
passing  thought  and  ceremonial.  St.  Paul  was 
called  of  the  Spirit  to  save  Christianity  from 
being  a  Jewish  sect  which  simply  confessed  the 


INHERENT  IN  REVELATION  29 

Messiah  to  have  come.  Whatever  bonds  of  his 
own  fastening  St.  Paul  laid  upon  primitive 
Christianity,  he  "  transplanted  the  young  reli- 
gion," in  the  appreciative  words  of  Wernle,  "  Into 
the  great  world  of  civilization,  created  its  first 
profound  system  of  thought,  and  developed  a 
new  form  of  personal  religion.  In  so  doing  he 
was  the  first  to  introduce  Christianity  into  the 
world's  history."  *  Yet  Paul's  Epistles  not  only 
present,  as  we  shall  see  at  greater  length,  lines 
of  reasoning  which  have  ceased  to  be  living, 
but  abound  in  the  discussion  of  questions  whose 
principles  and  conclusions  are  alike  obsolete. 
The  place  of  woman  to-day  in  the  family  and 
in  the  social  order  cannot  be  that  she  held  in 
Corinth ;  nor  the  duties  of  citizenship  In  a  free 
republic  be  those  of  a  Roman  under  the  Caesars. 
That  the  large  vision  of  the  Apostle  enabled 
him  to  discern  great  principles  within  passing 
usages  did  not  save  him  from  frequent  detailed 
directions   which    a   growing    Christianity  must 


*  Wernle.     Beginnings  of  Christianity,    358. 


30         THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

cast  off.  That  good  men  still  affirm  the  bind- 
ing obligation  of  these  details  of  St.  Paul  is  one 
reason  for  these  lectures. 

The  names  of  praise  In  the  history  of  the 
Church's  scholarship  are  those  of  men,  who  up 
to  their  best  light  have  endeavored  to  discover 
and  champion  the  permanent  in  the  Christian 
oracles.  Origin  first,  with  many  a  Greek  father 
following  ;  even  Augustine  in  his  uncontrover- 
sial  writings ;  England's  great  Hooker ;  men  in 
our  own  time  at  such  opposite  poles  as  Bishop 
Gore,  and  James  Martineau,  the  latter  writing 
on  the  Severance  of  Undivine  Elements  from 
Religion  ;  at  least  two  Bampton  courses,  that  of 
Boyd  Carpenter  in  1887  on  the  Permanent 
Elements  of  Religion,  that  of  Robert  Edward 
Barlett  in  1888  on  the  Letter  and  the  Spirit,  all 
bear  witness  to  the  reality  of  this  present  theme. 

In  the  practical  working  of  the  Church  the 
same  witness  is  borne.  The  High  Churchmen 
contends  that  many  portions  of  the  Prayer  Book, 
especially  the  additions  made  in  the  Second 
Book,  were  concessions  to  the  spirit  of  the  time 


INHERENT  IN  REVELATION  3 1 

which  will  be  dropped  from  the  permanent  book 
that  is  to  be.  The  Broad  Churchman  finds  in 
older  features  of  the  liturgy  phraseology  retained 
which,  if  it  may  not  be  dropped  as  obsolete  and 
even  untrue  for  us,  must  yet  be  allowed  the  wid- 
est latitude  of  interpretation.  In  the  whole 
system  of  the  lectionary  and  of  special  Psalms, 
which  latter  is  curiously  enough  the  revival  of  a 
more  primitive  and  catholic  usage,  the  principle  of 
selection  affirms  a  permanent  and  universal  value 
of  some  parts  of  Scripture  over  others. 

Nothing  of  value  has  been  lost  in  the  conces- 
sions heretofore  made  of  temporary  features  in 
the  divine  revelation.  The  principle  once  ad- 
mitted, there  remains  only  the  long  process  of 
its  careful  application.  The  ground  taken  in 
these  lectures  is  already  familiar  ;  we  have  simply 
failed  to  realize  it  and  to  draw  honest  conclu- 
sions. Men  have  felt  that  a  halt  must  be  called 
somewhere,  and  they  have  called  it,  with  hue 
and  cry  of  danger,  just  where  they  felt  comfort- 
able in  halting  themselves.  The  truth  is,  there 
can  be  no  halt  in  applying  this  illuminating  truth 


32  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

to  the  Church's  endowment,  till  all  the  perma- 
nent treasure  has  been  discovered  and  recovered, 
while  the  temporary  is  relegated  to  its  proper 
and  useful  place  as  matter  of  scaffolding  and 
history. 

VI.  It  is  proposed  to  follow  this  preliminary 
lecture,  whose  aim  has  been  to  affirm  the  idea 
of  permanent  and  temporary  features  in  the  New 
Testament  revelation  and  to  secure  its  respect- 
ful recognition,  with  such  illustrative  application 
as  time  and  ability  allow. 

I  shall  first  try  to  show  that  a  written  reve- 
lation necessarily  involves  temporary  features,  to 
be  reckoned  with  and  discarded.  Taking  up 
then  the  Person  of  Christ  of  Whose  work  and 
word  the  revelation  is  witness,  I  shall  ask  you  to 
study  the  temporary  features  involved  of  neces- 
sity in  the  Incarnation  ;  and  then  those  to  be 
found  and  separated  from  the  very  Teachings  of 
Christ  Himself.  The  methods  and  conclusions 
of  St.  Paul's  Theology  will  be  our  next  study, 
bringing  to  light  temporary  characteristics  of 
marked    influence    and    perhaps    injury    on    the 


INHERENT  IN  REVELATION  33 

Christian  faith.  A  final  lecture  on  the  tempo- 
rary type  of  Christian  thought  seen  in  apocalyp- 
tic utterance  will  serve  to  draw  a  helpful  line 
between  the  mystical  and  the  practical  in  Chris- 
tianity. 

We  are  laying  out  for  ourselves  a  hard  task. 
We  must  pray  first  of  all  for  the  spirit  to  think 
and  to  do  those  things  that  are  right,  to  be  saved 
from  ingenious  and  sensational  utterance,  to  have 
as  the  one  object  of  our  study  the  attainment  of 
a  better  knowledge  of  Jesus,  a  fuller  appreciation 
of  the  Christian  religion. 


LECTURE  II. 

THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT  IN  A  WRIT- 
TEN   REVELATION. 

I.  Christianity  has  been  maintained,  at  least 
by  the  Protestant  world,  to  be  the  Religion  of  a 
Book. 

The  sweeping  pronouncement  that  ours  is  a 
book  relieion,  thougfh  an  article  of  faith  In  which 
most  of  us  have  been  trained.  Is  open  to  modifi- 
cation. In  applying  the  corrective  we  must  not 
swing  away  from  the  truth. 

Two  facts  limit  the  emphasis  to  be  laid  upon 
Christianity  as  a  book  religion. 

1.  The  Church  existed  before  the  book,  and 
determined  what  belonged  in  the  book. 

Further,  and  of  still  greater  significance, 

2.  The  book  is  a  Revelation  of  God,  is  God 
speaking  to  man.  Revelation  Is  a  more  distinc- 
tive mark  of    Christianity's  book  than  Inspira- 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION  35 

tion.  Inspiration  is  a  thing  of  degrees,  and  may 
be  affirmed  of  many  kinds  of  utterance,  even 
the  merely  secular.  Revelation  is  a  word  from 
God  alone,  telling  of  His  way  and  His  will. 
Revelation  implies  one  receiving  the  revelation. 
Fearful  of  the  subjective  factor  in  all  communi- 
cations we  yet  must  always  exercise  it.  There 
must  be  a  response  in  the  hearer,  else  there  is  no 
Word.  No  amount  of  authority  would  estab- 
lish the  book,  could  enforce  it,  unless  the  writ- 
ing appealed  to  conscience,  is  made  one's  own. 

While,  however,  the  Church  existed  before 
the  book  and  set  its  seal  upon  it ;  while  also  the 
receiving  soul  must  make  the  revelation  of  the 
book  its  own,  still  the  book  is  the  standard  to 
which  Christianity  must  ever  refer,  by  which  its 
truth  and  claims  must  ever  be  tested. 

The  first  of  the  Lambeth  corner-stones  of 
union  is,  *'  The  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  as  containing  all  things  neces- 
sary to  salvation,  and  as  being  the  rule  and 
ultimate  standard  of  faith." 

A  former  distinguished  Bohlen  lecturer,  whose 


36         THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

course  on  the  Peace  of  the  Church  I  hold  to  be 
an  invaluable  manual  for  intelligent  seekers 
after  truth  as  this  church  is  in  trust  for  the  same, 
entitles  one  of  his  lectures  The  Archives,  ''  It 
is  impossible  to  deny,"  writes  Dr.  Huntington, 
*'that,  for  better  or  for  worse,  the  fortunes  of 
Christ's  religion  have  been  knitted  to  a 
book.  The  argument  may  be  put  into  three 
sentences.  First,  the  world  cannot  live,  at 
least  cannot  live  contentedly,  without  religion. 
Secondly,  religion  cannot  live,  at  least  cannot 
adequately  live,  without  records,  without  an 
authenticated  history,  a  book  of  words  and  acts. 
Thirdly,  among  such  books,  and  they  are 
many,  the  Christian  Scriptures,  even  by  the 
confession  of  unfriendly  critics,  stand  supreme."  * 
We  hear  another  witness  to  the  even  more 
unqualified  position  ''that  in  all  civilized  religions 
divine  revelation  is  presented  to  man  in  the 
form  of  a  sacred  writing."  ''  The  inner  experi- 
ences of  men  of  God,"  Sabatier  goes  on  to  say, 


*  Huntington's  Peace  of  the  Church,  62,  73. 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION  37 

"and  the  witness  of  them  that  they  give  to  the 
world,  express  themselves  naturally  in  speech, 
and  this  in  Its  turn  is  transformed  Into  Scrip- 
ture. .  .  .  The  rank  of  the  Hebrew  and 
Christian  Bible  is  thus  found  to  be  logically 
determined  by  the  moral  worth  of  the  Hebrew 
and  the  Christian  religions."  * 

As  long  as  apostolic  men  were  alive,  personal 
witnesses  of  Truth  Incarnate,  a  spoken  word 
sufficed.  When  the  time  came  that  they  must 
be  called  from  earth,  their  witness  became  a 
written  word.  The  world  now  read  the  message 
It  had  before  listened  to  and  memorized.  The 
written  word  was  the  message  continued  in 
the  only  way  it  could  be  continued,  and  by  It 
the  witnesses  being  dead  yet  speak,  and  He 
to  whom  they  witness  speaks  through  them. 

That  Christianity  is  a  religion  of  a  book  is 
not  a  defect  in  Christianity,  Is  rather  its  charac- 
teristic and  its  glory.     The  Christian  religion  is 


*  Sabatier.      Outlines    of    a    Philosophy   of    Religion, 
Page  60. 


38  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

an  historical  religion,  given  to  men  in  time,  re- 
vealed by  persons  who  have  actually  lived  and 
taught.  So  the  Christian  creed  is  a  statement 
of  facts,  facts  in  time  felt  to  be  facts  of  eternal 
moment,  these  facts  to  be  verified  as  a  basis  of 
belief  and  hope.  We  read  the  Bible  to  learn 
what  God  has  done,  as  well  as  what  God  has 
said.  As  long  as  men  hold  on  to  religion,  they 
will  hold  on  to  the  Christian  Scriptures  as 
religion's  book. 

The  value  of  the  book  has  been  exaggerated 
even  to  making  its  defenders  a  laughing  stock. 
The  bibliolatry  of  the  Hutchinsonians  opposed 
to  "  Newton's  Principia "  what  they  called 
"  Moses'  Principia,"  affirming  that  men  are  de- 
pendent on  the  Bible  for  a  knowledge  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  all  true  science  and 
philosophy.  *  Failure  to  realize  the  Bible's  true 
purpose  does  not  discredit  that  for  which  It  was 
given ;  It  rather  emphasizes  its  value  by  man's 
disposition  to  extend  Its  scope  beyond  the  legitl- 


*  Flint's  Agnosticism,  587. 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION  39 

mate.  The  Bible  has  been  worth  so  much,  we 
can  sympathize  with  the  reverence  for  its  every 
word  felt  by  the  devout  Scotchman  and  his  New 
England  fellow  religionist.  Reaction  from  su- 
perstition must  not  throw  over  piety. 

We  take  up  our  New  Testament.  If  we  are 
honest  enough  to  speak  out  what  we  conscien- 
tiously feel,  we  wish  some  things  therein  were 
not  there,  that  certain  texts  were  not  as  we  find 
them.  We  are  not  bound  in  slavery  to  the 
letter  as  were  our  fathers.  Perhaps  they  do  not 
belong  there.  Perhaps  their  place  has  been 
overemphasized,  missing  perspective.  Perhaps 
they  are  of  the  perishing  elements  which  have 
been  ''  fulfilled,"  the  language  of  riddles  which  in 
God's  Providence  have  now  been  solved. 

**  God,  wishing  to  speak  to  us,  has  never 
chosen  any  but  human  organs."  The  divine  and 
human  elements  are  constantly  and  inevitably 
intermingled.  Religious  men,  notably  Christian 
men,  have  been  unable  or  unwilling  frankly  to 
accept  this  fact.  Life  has  never  been  seen  apart 
from  living  beings,  nor  light  apart  from  luminous 


40  THE  TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

vibrations.  We  are  to  recognize  the  method  of 
the  divine  chemistry,  reaHze  that  the  divine  is 
ever  to  be  discovered  enshrined  within  human 
vestings,  and  by  the  exercise  of  human  powers 
of  analysis  and  interpretation.  * 

Two  sources  of  authority  for  the  Christian 
Religion,  two  witnesses  for  Christ  in  all  ages, 
His  words,  Holy  Scripture  ;  His  Spirit,  inter- 
preting  those  words.  The  inner  is  behind  the 
outer.  The  outer  is  fundamental  for  the  inner 
to  work  upon  and  make  its  own.  There  must 
be  the  material  for  the  spirit's  moulding. 

n.  That  the  Christian  Religion  appeals  to  a 
book,  must  be  tested  in  its  claim  and  truth  by  a 
written  revelation,  is  the  yfr^/ reason  for  separat- 
ing permanent  from  temporary  elements. 

Any  written  revelation  involves  of  necessity 
such  separation ;  (i)  because  it  is  written  in 
time ;  (2)  because  its  true  contents  must  be 
determined ;  (3)  because  its  meaning  must  be 
interpreted  to  other  ages  than  its  own. 


*  Sabatier.     Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Religion,  61-62 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION  4 1 

A  book  Is  a  human  thing,  a  creation  of  parch- 
ment and  hieroglyphics,  of  signs  striving  to 
embody  thought,  within  which  the  revelation  is 
bound.  Our  Bible  is  "  a  huge  volume,  clogged 
by  the  weight  of  ancient  chronicles,  and  bending 
beneath  a  burden  of  old  prophecies  hard  to  be 
understood."  "^ 

A  book,  our  sacred  book  ;  is  in  a  language  ;  of 
an  age  ;  by  many  individual  writers  ;  is  collected 
in  a  canon  ;  must  be  copied,  transmitted,  printed, 
translated  from  earlier  to  later  tongues,  to  other 
hearts.  Language  Itself,  notably  written  lan- 
guage, demands  this  translating  process.  Is  para- 
bolic, pictorial,  has  a  style  whose  expression  as 
vestlture  of  thought  varies  with  the  age.  Ques- 
tions of  Inspiration  arise  over  our  Book,  of  can- 
oniclty,  of  editing,  of  kinds  of  literature  and  their 
scope,  Inevitable  questions  on  a  book.  From 
all  these  emerges  a  permanent  message,  the  tem- 
porary little  by  little  put  Into  the  background 
by    a    reading    at    once    scholarly    and  devout. 


Peace  of  Church,  64. 


42  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Is  it  loss  or  gain,  that  this  sacred  book  must 
be  subjected  to  this  clearing  process,  loss  or  gain 
that  we  have  this  treasure  in  earthen  vessels  ? 
Are  bodies,  we  may  equally  ask,  a  hindrance,  or 
a  help  to  the  spirit,  and  as  we  ask  hear  the  wise 
Apostle  claiming  for  life  eternal  a  spiritual  body, 
and  desirine  not  to  be  unclothed  but  clothed 
upon.  Is  the  external  world  either  a  delusion 
of  man's  mortal  mind  or  an  enemy  thrust  into 
the  presence  of  an  unwilling  God  ?  The  Chris- 
tian Hymn  of  Creation  sings  of  God's  need  that 
He  express  Himself  in  the  works  of  His  hands 
and  of  His  joy  in  the  result.  Church  and  Sacra- 
ments, outward  and  visible  signs  of  an  inward 
and  spiritual  grace,  are  not  concessions  to  the 
infirmity  of  man's  material  nature,  but  manifes- 
tations of  the  divine  beauty  and  love.  The 
book  of  God's  words  invites  to  open  and  read 
and  interpret,  but  not  as  an  ungrateful  task 
necessitated  by  earth's  limitations ;  rather  as 
appealing  to  the  joy  of  study  and  discovery  and 
appropriation.  A  true  alchemy  may  be  set  at 
work  by  which  material  things  are  transformed 
into  the  o-old  of  character. 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION  43 

Of  these  demands,  which  a  written  revelation 
inevitably  lays  upon  us,  to  separate  out  what  is 
permanent,  I  ask  your  attention  first  to  the 
Canon  as  strikingly  illustrating  the  point  in 
hand. 

The  Canon,  originally  the  rule  by  which  the 
determination  was  reached,  has  come  to  mean 
the  result  itself,  the  books  belonging  in  the 
book  which  make  the  Bible.  The  process  of 
determining  the  canon  has  hitherto  been  but 
dimly  realized  even  by  scholars ;  it  is  now  clear 
beyond  any  question.  Study  of  the  process 
startles  the  student  of  the  Bible  ;  it  changes  his 
attitude  toward  the  book,  but  the  change  is 
from  a  conventional  feeling  to  one  of  growing 
satisfaction  and  confidence. 

Old  copies  of  the  Bible,  familiar  on  candle- 
stands  in  country  parlors,  portrayed  on  the 
cover  a  hand  passing  down  from  mysterious 
clouds  a  sacred  volume  bound  In  gilt.  Intended 
as  symbolical  the  picture  became  theological. 
A  heavenly  hand  appearing  detached  from  a 
body,  wrapped  about  by  the  mystery  of  cloudi- 


^H         THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

ness,  holding  a  book  for  human  hands  to  seize, 
became  our  idea  of  the  origin  of  the  Christian 
Scriptures.  They  lost  human,  historical,  intelli- 
gent connection.  To  affirm  such  of  them 
seemed  a  profanation  of  their  sacredness.  The 
Bible  was  put  away  on  a  shelf  with  the  uncreated 
Koran,  with  the  Veda  which  the  Brahmins  for- 
bade to  study  as  other  books  are  studied,  with 
the  Law  of  Moses  over  whose  awful  sacredness 
the  Scribes  of  our  Lord's  day  mumbled  their 
incantations. 

It  has  now  come  to  be  recognized  that  the 
forming  of  the  canon  of  Scripture  was  a  histori- 
cal process,  covering  some  three  centuries  ;  a  sift- 
ing work  in  which  much  earthly  matter  was  long 
held  in  solution.  Again  and  again,  in  different 
quarters,  the  right  of  certain  books  to  find  a 
place  in  the  Word  of  God  was  questioned,  while 
others  finally  excluded  were  for  a  time  reverently 
received.  Though  the  number  of  books  in  ques- 
tion, either  for  retention  or  exclusion,  was  rela- 
tively small ;  yet  such  prized  writings  as  the 
Book  of  Revelation  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Heb- 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION  45 

rews  were  in  doubt  till  about  the  year  400,  and 
there  are  manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament  of 
the  tenth  century  which  omit  the  former.  The 
process  in  determining  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament  was  but  a  repetition  of  that  which 
obtained  in  forminor  the  Old  Testament  canon. 
More  than  five  hundred  years  intervened  between 
the  gathering  of  the  books  of  the  Law  into  the 
first  canon,  about  440  b.  c,  and  the  final  allotting 
of  Soncr  of  Sonors  and  Ecclesiastes  to  the  sacred 
writings  a  little  before  the  year  100  of  our 
Christian  era.  Some  of  the  prophetical  books 
were  in  existence  five  hundred  years  before  their 
authoritative  character  as  a  revelation  from  God 
was  acknowledged.  *  The  receiving  mind  and 
heart  were  determining  by  all  the  methods  at  its 
command  whether  it  was  a  word  from  God.  It 
could  be  imposed  upon  by  no  celestial  fireworks. 
There  were  no  signs  attached  to  the  books  to 
startle    or   awe    into    submission.     They   were 


*  Peters.     The  Old  Testament  and  the  New  Scholar- 
ship, Chap.  I. 


46  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

simply  writings  making  a  claim  on  intelligence 
and  devotion.  It  took  centuries  to  decide 
whether  that  claim  was  to  be  acknowledged  as 
the  highest. 

The  devout  Sabatier  has  gathered  this  illu- 
minating fact  into  a  few  terse  sentences.  '"  The 
Bible  appears  to  us  as  the  work,  slowly  and 
laboriously  constructed,  of  the  ancient  Jewish 
Synagogue  and  of  the  Early  Jewish  Church.  It 
needed  more  than  four  centuries  to  establish 
and  to  delimitate  the  New  Testament  The 
books  which  compose  it  were  still  in  the  time  of 
Eusebius  divided  into  two  classes :  books  ad- 
mitted everywhere  and  books  contested.  Why 
then  should  we  not  have  the  same  liberty  as 
Origen  of  doubting  the  authenticity  of  Second 
Peter,  for  example,  or  as  Denis  of  Alexandria, 
in  discussing  the  apostolic  origin  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse ?  "  * 

This  historical  and  gradual  determining  of  the 
canon  of  both  Testaments,  along  lines  and  in  the 


*  Sabatier.     Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Religion,     52, 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION  47 

use  of  powers  familiar  to  experts  in  deciding  like 
claims,  while  it  is  undeniably  the  process  by  which 
we  have  the  Holy  Bible  to-day,  is  not  even  yet 
grasped,  in  its  fact  and  its  consequences,  by  the 
mass  of  Christian  people.  The  first  result,  on 
awakening  to  a  realization  of  this  simple  method 
of  recognizing  God's  voice.  Is  a  feeling  of  un- 
certainty and  anxiety,  the  second  and  abiding 
one,  a  conviction  of  deep  thankfulness.  Old  and 
traditional  conceptions  of  an  unquestioned  and 
absolute  demarcation  between  the  inspired 
and  the  uninspired,  of  a  volume  bound  together 
so  to  speak  at  once  and  once  for  all,  are  forever 
lost,  and  in  losing  them  we  bid  good-by  to  that 
which  Is  both  false  and  fragile.  Into  their  place 
comes  the  vision  of  a  process  by  which  man's 
wisdom  divinely  illuminated  has  grown  to  recog- 
nize the  voice  as  the  voice  of  the  Lord. 

We  can  no  longer  say.  This  Is  divine  because, 
It  Is  in  the  canon  and  not  in  the  Apocrypha,  be- 
cause it  Is  In  Peter  and  not  In  Clement — It  was 
long  an  open  question  whether  a  book  should  be 
put  In  the  canon  or  relegated  to  the  Apocrypha, 


48  THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

whether  Clement  should  be  left  in  and  Peter  left 
out.  There  Is  a  deeper  test  of  what  is  divine 
than  beinpf  counted  amongf  the  books,  as  there 
was  another  reason  for  so  counting  books  to  be 
sacred  than  because  they  were  found  together. 
Some  divine  messages  are  not  in  the  canon,  some 
words  therein  are  not  from  God.  Revelation 
and  Scripture  are  not  in  all  their  boundaries 
synonymous.  God's  revelation  of  Himself  is 
not  C07tji7ted  to  a  book.  He  has  also  been  re- 
vealed to  individual  souls,  to  His  Church  deliber- 
ating on  His  way  and  will.  The  enlightened 
Church,  the  consecrated  soul  has  become  through 
long  historical  processes  the  witness  to  the  book, 
voucher  for  its  credentials  as  a  word  from  God. 
Much  of  a  temporary  character  remains  in  the 
book.  The  Church,  as  by  its  wise  and  devout 
membership  of  many  generations  it  determined 
what  belongs  to  the  book,  so  by  that  same  illu- 
minated wisdom  will  it  determine  the  relative 
value  of  what  has  been  Included  therein.  It  has 
never  been  necessary,  as  pious  but  misguided 
ingenuity   long  argued,  that  the    Bible    include 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION-  49 

just  SO  much  ;  that  four  is,  for  example,  the 
heavenly  number  for  Gospels.  We  could  spare 
some  books  and  still  have  a  revelation  of  God 
which  would  meet  our  essential  needs.  A  book 
might  conceivably  be  added  to  the  canon  by  which 
our  view  of  God  would  be  made  more  rich.  The 
canon  is  doubtless  closed  because  we  are  so  far 
removed  both  from  the  time  and  the  spirit  in 
which  the  books  were  written,  and  because  our 
Christianity  has  made  its  list  of  sacred  books  and 
gone  its  several  ways.  Yet,  even  now,  some 
great  branch  of  the  Christian  Church  might  con- 
ceivably drop  out  Second  Peter,  either  because 
of  its  contents  or  its  authorship  ;  and  the  dis- 
covery in  some  Red  Sea  monastery  of  a  lost 
Epistle  beyond  any  question  written  by  St.  Paul 
might  bring  divided  Christendom  together  again 
for  one  hour  while  it  reopened  the  canon. 

The  process  of  determining  the  canon  has 
been  all  along  a  separation  of  temporary  from 
permanent  elements.  That  separation  is  still  a 
guiding  principle  in  determining  the  use  we 
shall  make  of  the  revelation  and  the  value  of  its 


50         THE    TEMPORARY  AXD    THE  PERMANENT 

several  parts.  We  have  not  yet  begun  to  realize 
or  to  apply  the  significance  of  a  sacred  volume 
whose  true  contents  have  been  determined  by  the 
wisdom  of  history.  '*  History"  "  historical  "  are 
found  to  be  words  and  processes  deserving  our 
reverence.  The  illumination  which  comes  to 
our  religion  from  a  book  historically  written  and 
historically  determined,  is  like  that  we  feel  when 
we  learn  that  the  Church  is  a  Church  of  History, 
and  did  not  spring  into  being  apart  from  the 
needs  and  the  shifts  of  men.  It  is  akin  to  the 
supreme  satisfaction  felt  by  our  intellect  and 
manhood  in  the  discovery  of  this  present  age 
that  the  majestic  order  of  the  universe  has  been 
and  is  ever  unfolding  progressively,  was  not 
created  in  its  final  form  by  a  single  fiat,  and  the 
key  to  this  awakening  discovery  is  the  survival 
of  the  permanent,  the  elimination  of  the  tempo- 
rary. As  a  boy,  I  thought,  partisanlike  as  we  all 
are  in  youth,  that  a  word  was  either  inspired  or 
not  inspired,  and  if  pronounced  inspired  the  sub- 
ject was  closed  ;  that  you  read  from  the  Book  of 
Wisdom  on  all  Saints  Day  at  your  peril,  since  it 


I.V  A    WRITTEN  REVELATION  5  I 

only  belonged  In  the  Apocrypha.  God's  voice, 
I  have  come  to  learn,  may  be  there  though  the 
Church's  judgment  leaves  the  book  as  a  zuJiole 
outside  the  sacred  volume. 

Do  we  open  the  way,  by  such  considerations, 
for  hopeless  uncertainty  and  confusion  ?  Only 
to  souls  lacking  the  courage  of  their  birthright, 
false  to  the  principles  which  guided  the  fathers 
in  determininor  and  handing  on  the  revealed 
word.  We  awake  rather  to  the  consciousness 
that  the  decisions  by  which  we  have  our  present 
Scriptures  were  the  result  of  most  careful  and 
painstaking  separation  of  material,  and  that  the 
practical  unanimity  on  all  the  books  of  value 
gives  us  a  treasure  assured  beyond  question. 
Wisdom  and  piety  did  not  cease  with  one  age. 
The  Holy  Spirit  has  not  deserted  His  Church. 
The  study  of  the  canon  summons  to  a  coura- 
geous faith.  The  call  to  sift  out  the  temporary 
that  the  permanent  may  abide  is  a  witness  to 
belief  in  a  living  Lord. 

HI.  By  this  study,  we  discover  that  the  ques- 
tion of  canoniclty  Is  of  greater  relative  importance 


52         THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

than  that  of  Inspiration.  The  inspiration  of  the 
Bible  is  no  longer,  as  was  once  held,  its  primary 
mark.  Inspiration  is  still  to  be  affirmed  of  the 
Bible,  an  exceptional  inspiration  for  an  excep- 
tional purpose.  Yet  we  no  longer  regard 
inspiration  as  confined  to  the  Bible,  nor  the  one 
determining  feature  by  which  its  books  were 
included  in  a  sacred  collection.  The  man  is 
inspired  and  not  the  books,  and  his  inspiration 
is  recognized  by  enlightened  Christian  respon- 
siveness. ''  When  God  wished  to  give  the 
Decalogue  to  Israel,  He  did  not  write  with  His 
finger  on  tables  of  stone  ;  He  raised  up  Moses, 
and  from  the  consciousness  of  Moses  the  Deca- 
logue sprang.  In  order  that  we  might  have  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  there  was  no  need  to 
dictate  It  to  the  Apostle ;  God  had  only  to  create 
the  powerful  individuality  of  Saul  of  Tarsus, 
well  knowing  that  when  once  the  tree  was  made 
the  fruit  would  follow  in  due  course.  The  same 
with  the  Gospel ;  He  did  not  drop  it  from  the 
sky  ;  He  did  not  send  it  by  an  angel ;  He  caused 
Jesus  to  be  born   from   the   very  bosom  of  the 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION  53 

human  race,  and  Jesus  gave  us  the  Gospel  that 
had  blossomed  in  His  inmost  heart."  "^  The 
man  is  not  lost  in  his  inspiration.  He  uses  his 
natural  and  acquired  powers  to  clothe  the  mes- 
sage that  has  been  given  him.  It  is  for  that 
message  the  ear  of  man  is  listening,  to  recognize 
it  if  he  can,  and  to  receive  messenger  and  mes- 
sage from  God  Himself. 

It  is  now  universally  admitted  that  the  indi- 
vidual style  is  not  destroyed  by  the  inspiration. 
As  better  or  worse,  as  hiding  or  helping  the 
message,  what  is  for  all  time  is  to  be  disen- 
tangled  from  the  style,  which  is  that  of  the  man 
and  the  day.  "With  whatever  inspiration  God 
has  endowed  men,"  writes  Sabatier,  *'that  inspir- 
ation has  always  passed  through  human  subjec- 
tivity ;  it  has  only  been  able  either  to  express  or 
to  translate  itself  in  the  language  and  the  turn 
of  mind  of  a  particular  individual  and  of  a  par- 
ticular time.  Now,  no  individual  and  historical 
form    can    be    absolute.     If    the    contents   are 


*  Sabatier.     Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Religion,  57. 


54  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

divine,  the  vessel  is  always  earthern.     The  organ 
of  the  revelation  of  God  necessarily  limits  it."* 

The  literary  style  of  the  Bible  writers  is  not 
given  to  the  race  as  itself  marked  with  divine 
approval.  That  literary  style  must  be  under- 
stood and  translated  as  well  as  the  language. 
The  writer  must  be  made  to  speak  in  a  manner 
agreeable  to  another  day.  All  the  literature  of 
the  New  Testament,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Old, 
Is  written  with  a  purpose.  The  writing  is  colored 
by  that  purpose.  That  purpose  is  good,  but  in 
a  measure  personal  to  himself,  and  so  incidental 
and  temporary.  The  study  of  the  purpose  of 
each  of  the  four  Evangelists  is  a  commonplace 
of  translation  for  intelligent  Bible  classes.  This 
personal  element  is  necessary  in  any  revelation. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  an  abstract,  universal, 
unrelated  style,  as  a  scheme  of  writing  for  all 
races  and  ages  on  the  face  of  the  Heavens.  Yet 
this  personal  element  must  be  treated,  so  far  as 
it   affects  the  message,  as  a  temporary  feature. 


*  Sabatier,     Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Religion,  6i. 


IN  A   WRITTEN  RE  VELA  TION  5  5 

The  obscure  passages  must  all  be  not  only 
explained,  but  as  they  offend  and  hinder  must 
be  omitted.  Christian  readers  will  have  favorite 
writers  and  favorite  books  ;  will  pass  over  alto- 
gether considerable  portions  of  the  written  reve- 
lation. The  Christian  Church  will  claim  the 
right  to  omit  certain  verses  or  paragraphs  in 
public  or  devotional  reading. 

In  the  liturgical  wsQ  of  the  Bible  this  principle 
of  separation  between  permanent  and  temporary, 
this  consciousness  that  inspiration  does  not 
extend  to  all  alike,  takes  on  a  very  practical  and 
persuasive  form. 

The  principle  has  been  long  acknowledged  in 
a  timid  fashion.  There  Is  a  hesitancy  to  apply 
it  more  fully  or  to  confess  our  recognition  of  It, 
because  of  archaic  and  ignorant  conceptions  of 
the  very  nature  and  method  of  God's  revelation. 
It  is  a  mistaken  view  of  the  Bible  that  requires 
any  passage  either  to  be  used  as  a  whole  in 
public  worship  or  not  to  be  used  at  all.  The 
feeling  is  not  properly  described  as  reverence  for 
God's  word  ;  it  Is  an  unintelligent  treatment  of 


56  THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

its  human  and  therefore  its  passing  elements. 
Modifications  in  liturgical  use  come  slow,  and 
properly  so  because  of  our  attachment  to  the 
prized  devotional  forms  of  generations.  We 
shall  continue  to  read  of  the  Three  Heavenly 
Witnesses  in  the  Epistle  for  the  First  Sunday 
after  Easter,  part  of  the  Prayer  Book,  long  after 
we  have  omitted  it  from  the  lectionary  as  a 
lesson  from  the  Bible  for  Trinity  Sunday  even- 
ing. It  will  sometime  go  from  the  Epistle,  being 
not  a  part,  as  it  there  claims,  of  I  John  v.  So 
the  Commandments,  in  the  Ante  Communion 
Service  will,  I  am  sure,  be  heard  by  our  children 
one  sentence  only  for  each  Commandment.  We 
shall  omit,  in  liturgical  use,  clauses  suited  only 
for  the  conditions  of  their  original  utterance, 
found  notably  in  the  Fourth  Commandment,  and 
clearly  enough  in  the  Fifth  and  Tenth.  God's 
permanent  message  will  be  the  one  clause, 
''Remember  the  Lord's  Day  to  keep  it  holy"; 
"Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother";  "Thou 
shalt  not  covet "  ;  and  the  people  can  answer 
with  a  ready  heart,  "  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us. 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION  57 

and  Incline  our  hearts  to  keep  this  law."  In  the 
burial  chapter  there  are  verses  which  either  from 
their  obscurity  or  their  harshness  mar  the  effec- 
tiveness of  an  otherwise  well-nigh  perfect  word 
of  comfort  from  God.  Baptism  for  the  dead 
requires  explanation  not  suited  to  the  hour  of 
sorrow.  ''  Let  us  eat  and  drink  for  to-morrow 
we  die  "  ;  *'  Evil  communications  corrupt  good 
manners,"  the  cry  of  the  Epicurean,  the  warn- 
ing to  the  dissolute,  are  jarring  words  In  the 
house  of  mourning.  We  retain  these  verses 
solely  from  an  obsolescent  loyalty  to  Scripture 
as  a  whole,  from  failure  to  apply  the  winnowing 
principle  that  edification  Is  found  In  the  per- 
manent alone,  archaic  Interest  only  In  the  tem- 
porary. In  the  Psalter,  where  the  use  of  Scrip- 
ture is  emphatically  devotional  rather  than 
Instructive,  the  appointment  or  the  permission 
of  Selections  of  Psalms  has  long  recognized 
a  permanent  out  from  a  passing  religious  value. 
In  this  usage,  the  Church  of  Rome,  following 
the  earlier  church,  has  been  wiser  than  the  re- 
formed Church  of  England.     Our  own  Church, 


58  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

by  introducing  Selections  and  increasing  their 
number,  has  come  into  line  with  a  generous 
Catholicity.  We  have  not  yet  dared  to  apply 
the  principle  to  vei^ses  of  individual  Psalms, 
omitting  such  as  are  of  passing  or  questionable 
moral  character,  as  in  the  69th  Psalm  appointed 
for  Good  Friday.  The  structural  character  of 
many  Psalms  introduces  a  denunciatory  element 
as  a  sort  of  background  for  the  larger  vision  and 
more  devout  trust.  Such  dark  contrasts,  such 
separateness  of  the  chosen  people  from  the  con- 
demned and  hated,  however  necessary  to  keep 
faith  and  goodness  alive,  does  not  belong  to  the 
permanent  Christianity  of  the  Gospel.  No  per- 
missive selection  will  be  adapted  to  popular  use, 
which  does  not  print  the  selected  Psalms  by 
themselves.  No  congregation  will  read  six 
verses  only  of  Psalm  31,  as  is  permitted  in  the 
Second  Selection,  until  those  verses  are  printed 
apart.  I  doubt  if  any  of  you  have  ever  heard 
the  psalm  so  used.  The  time  will  come  when 
such  psalms  and  portions  of  psalms  only  will  be 
printed  in  the  Prayer  Book  for  devotional  use, 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION'  59 

as  the  church  in  its  wisdom  has  pronounced  edi- 
fying. Then  we  can  read  the  noble  139th  psahn, 
''  O  Lord,  Thou  hast  searched  me  out  and  known 
me,"  without  offending  the  sensitive  Christian 
conscience  by  compeUing  a  congregation  to  read 
verses  19 — 22,  "Wilt  thou  not  slay  the  wicked, 
O  God     ...     I  hate  them  right  sore." 

The  mind  of  the  Church  is  manifested  in  this 
increasing  use  of  selections  and  in  changes  ap- 
proved and  demanded  in  the  lectionary.  There 
is  oroinof  to  be  a  still  more  marked  and  courag^e- 
ous  application  of  the  distinction  between  what 
is  temporary  and  what  is  of  permanent  value  in 
the  written  Word.  *'  In  the  Prayer  Book  of 
Edward  VI  ",  we  quote  a  recent  article  from  the 
Spectator,  "  we  find  the  privilege  asserted  with 
deliorhtful  frankness  :  '  The  Old  Testament  is 
appointed  for  the  First  Lessons  at  Matins  and 
Even  Song,  and  shall  be  read  through  every 
year  once,  except  certain  books  and  chapters 
which  be  least  edifying  and  might  best  be  spared, 
and  therefore  are  left  unread.  The  New  Testa- 
ment  is  appointed    for  the   Second   Lessons  at 


6o  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Matins  and  Even  Song,  and  shall  be  read  over 
orderly  every  year  thrice  ;  except  the  Apocalypse, 
out  of  which  there  can  be  only  certain  Lessons 
appointed  upon  divers  proper  Feasts' — The  laity 
of  1904  are  not  children,  whose  reading  must  be 
supervised  by  the  Church.  No  man  is  bound  to 
wrest  his  conscience  into  harmony  with  a  moral- 
ity incompatible  with  the  teaching  of  Christ ;  but 
what  thinkinor  Christian  does  not  think  himself 

o 

so  bound  ?  The  exercise  of  the  moral  judgment 
is  a  wholesome  exercise.  '  Why  even  of  your- 
selves judge  ye  not  what  is  right ',  said  Christ  ". 
IV.  The  distinction  between  temporary  and 
permanent  is  thus  seen  to  apply  to  a  written  re- 
velation in  that  it  is  first  written  and  then  edited. 
Men  have  composed  it,  and  men  have  put  it 
together.  In  man's  work,  however  guided  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  there  are  always  of  necessity 
human,  that  is  perishable,  elements.  They  are 
fitted  to  perish.  They  ought  to  perish.  Man 
not  only  writes  and  collects  the  books  of  the 
Bible,  man  also  interprets  what  he  has  accepted 
as  a  word  from  God.     As  he  uses  he  interprets. 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION-  6 1 

Our  thought  must  be  turned  finally,  as  we  con- 
sider the  temporary  and  permanent  in  a  written 
revelation,  to  the  value  of  this  principle  in  using 
and  explaining  the  word. 

Are  we  ready  to  carry  this  principle  to  all 
parts  of  the  Bible  ?  Have  we  the  courage  of 
our  conscientious  discovery  ?  Are  apostles 
limited  by  conditions  of  their  time  and  know- 
ledge and  use  of  language  as  well  as  patriarchs 
and  priests,  writers  of  psalm  and  prophecy  ?  Is 
even  the  written  record  of  what  Jesus  our  Lord 
said  and  did  when  on  earth  to  be  subjected  to 
the  same  separating  process,  His  permanent 
message  for  man's  salvation  emerging  from  His 
word  of  passing  phrase  and  application,  He 
Himself  standinof  forth  as  He  is  for  all  time  out 
from  what  He  said  and  did  when  incarnate 
among  a  local  people  and  in  a  time  of  peculiar 
limitations?  In  this  lecture  we  can  but  seek  to 
learn  whether  the  principle  is  universally  true, 
reserving  its  application,  to  details  of  Christ's 
person  and  words  and  of  apostolic  teaching,  to 
later  lectures.       We   may  well    hesitate   as   we 


62         THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

approach  the  inner  sanctuary  of  our  reHgion, 
may  rigorously  subject  intellectual  processes  to 
spiritual  tests.  But  if  our  principle  Is  a  true  and 
saving  principle,  we  will  be  courageous  in  its 
application  under  the  guidance  of  the  same 
Spirit.  Men  destined  to  occupy  places  of 
counsel  and  construction  In  the  Christian 
Church  must  be  ready  to  move,  with  reverent 
but  firm  step,  along  paths  where  the  light  has 
already  shined  to  make  truth  more  plain.  The 
mass  of  Christian  people  must  be  gently  and 
helpfully  led  by  those  whose  duty  and  privilege 
it  is  to  tally  action  more  and  more  with  truth. 

Let  us  look  once  again  at  our  Bible,  our  writ- 
ten word,  our  New  Testament,  w^Ith  a  readiness 
to  deal  with  the  whole  of  It  In  the  way  which 
God  has  shown  and  still  shows  a  written  word 
demands.  In  this  further  look  our  thought  is 
chiefly  on  how  to  iiiterprct  the  word. 

So  looking  we  find  th^X.  freedom  In  the  use  of 
the  Book  Is  not  only  the  warrant  of  reason  but 
the  practice  of  devout  men  of  God. 

I.     Every  sacred  book,  be  It  Old  Testament 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION  63 

or  New,  be  it  Gospel  or  Epistle, — a  human 
thing  written  in  a  language  and  with  a  style — 
every  book  has  a  parentage  partly  earthly,  partly 
heavenly. 

The  earthly  must  gradually  be  put  in  the 
background,  be,  in  the  processes  of  transla- 
tion into  language  and  into  life,  so  subordinated 
as  to  well  nigh  disappear,  save  as  drapery.  Not 
merely  must  we  give  up  in  our  Bibles  as  of  per- 
manent obligation  such  crude  conceptions  of  a 
preparatory  dispensation  as  the  destruction  of 
the  Canaanites  and  the  imprecatory  Psalms,  on 
moral  grounds ;  such  false  notions  of  date  and 
authorship  as  have  been  tacked  on  to  books  and 
chapters  by  an  unscholarly  age,  and  made  the 
test  of  a  rising  or  falling  religion,  on  critical 
grounds  ;  but  certain  accepted  Interpretations, 
certain  treasured  Christian  doctrines,  founded, 
at  least  in  phraseology,  on  temporary,  fleeting 
and  unworthy  conceptions,  must  go  too  as  partak- 
ing of  the  earthly  element.  However  inter- 
woven as  part  and  parcel  of  a  cherished  scheme 
of   salvation,   however  deemed  essential  to  my 


64          THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

own  faith  as  that  by  which  I  mounted,  their 
value  for  all  men  and  all  time  must  be  freely 
questioned  and  rejected  if  found  wanting. 
Christ  boldly  threw  aside  such  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  was  un-Christian  in  fulfilline  the  law, 
did  away  with  the  perishing  elements,  pro- 
nounced, with  His  "  but  I  say  unto  you,"  distinct 
condemnation  on  what  Moses  had  said  to  them 
of  old  time.  So  the  Christian  must  discard, 
under  guidance  of  the  Spirit,  whatever  of  the 
New  Testament  is  un-Christian.  The  New 
Testament  writers  themselves  manifested  a 
courage  we  may  well  emulate  as  they  broke 
away  from  what  they  had  been  trained  to  revere. 
Some  grave  clothes  of  a  dead  faith  still  cling 
about  their  Christianity.  "  The  primitive 
Gospel  is  not  in  its  form,  but  only  in  its  spirit, 
the  Everlasting  Gospel."  *  The  Religion  of  a 
Book  must  use  its  book  as  a  book.  What  is 
more  sacred  to  a  people  than  a  written  constitu- 
tion ?     In   its  interpretation  changes  pass  with 


*  James  Martineau. 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATIOISr  65 

each  age,  adapting  its  words  to  conditions,  till, 
while  the  principle  survives,  external  action  may 
quite  contravene  its  letter.  We  are  told  that 
Japan  has  both  an  unwritten  constitution  like 
England  and  a  written  constitution  like  America, 
the  latter  interpreting  the  former  for  the  necessi- 
ties of  each  age.* 

2.  The  use  of  the  Old  Testament  by  New 
Testament  writers,  by  the  early  Christians,  by 
Christ  Himself,  exhibits  this  freedom  of  inter- 
pretation which  is  a  distinct  even  if  unavowed 
separation  and  retention  of  a  permanent  value, 
quite  apart  from  the  literal  and  primary  mean- 
ing of  the  passage  in  hand.  Reverenced  as  the 
Old  Testament  was  by  the  Jews  and  early 
Christians,  perhaps  beyond  any  feeling  enter- 
tained at  present  for  the  whole  Bible,  such 
reverence  permitted  the  freest  treatment  of  the 
material.  We  have  hardly  begun  to  study, 
much  less  to  realize  and  approve,  the  methods 
adopted  by  Christ  and  Apostolic  men  in  dealing 


*Baron  Kantaro,  Century,  July,  1904. 


66  THE  TEMPO RAK  V  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

with  their  word  of  God.  Their  treatment  of 
the  text  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  now 
as  literal,  now  as  allegorical,  now  as  a  motto  or 
only  a  catch  word,  has  yet  to  be  systematically 
studied  and  made  the  basis  for  a  like  fearless- 
ness linked  with  a  riper  discernment.  We  may 
neither  praise  nor  follow  their  example  till  we 
have  caueht  some  of  the  exaltation  that  found 
such  truth  and  value  in  the  old  written  word. 

So  Jesus  uses  His  Scriptures.  He  quotes 
their  poetry  as  illustration  ;  their  devotional 
language  to  strengthen  Himself  in  the  presence 
of  trial ;  their  literary  and  historic  treasure  to 
defend  His  own  claims  and  to  answer  His 
adversaries.  He  found  comfort  in  His  inherited 
familiarity  with  their  language.  He  took  grate- 
ful refuge,  as  did  the  men  of  His  time,  and  as 
do  the  men  of  the  Orient  to-day,  in  the  phrase, 
"  It  is  written."  Yet  at  His  touch  that  written 
word  glowed  with  new  and  unsuspected  power. 
He  passes  by  with  disapproval  the  unfit ;  He 
lifts  to  spiritual  levels  the  morally  neutral  ;  He 
retains,  uses,  hands   on,  the   serviceable   in   that 


IN  A   WRITTEN  RE  VELA  TION  6/ 

written  word.  He  cherished  while  he  criticised 
that  sacred  Hterature  which  as  a  whole  had 
made  for  righteousness  ;  and  drew  distinctions 
between  Moses'  legislation  for  the  hardness  of 
men's  hearts  and  the  visions  of  David  and 
Isaiah,  whose  Scripture  was  at  His  coming 
fulfilled  in  the  hearers'  ears.  Sharine,  as  He 
did,  the  reverence  of  an  early  age  for  the  mys- 
tery of  written  words,  He  handled  those  written 
words  as  symbols  of  invisible  realities."^  Later 
Christian  interpreters,  even  St.  Paul  himself,  as 
the  mystical  in  him  was  under  less  restraint, 
carried  this  free  handling  of  Scripture  to  an 
extreme  which  empties  the  word  of  all  its 
original  significance. 

We  may  not  wisely  make  these  allegorizing 
methods  our  own,  save  in  secondary  and  illus- 
trative ways.  The  abuse  of  the  original  text  to 
serve  as  heading  for  anything  one  wants  to 
preach  brings  into  discredit  the  use  of  any  text 


*  Hatch.     Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  upon  the  Christian 
Church.     Lecture  III. 

Peters.     Old  Testament  and  New  Scholarship.     57  ffg. 


6S  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

at  all — let  not  the  preacher  bolster  his  vagaries 
by  a  pretended  and  traditional  Scriptural  sup- 
port. We  may  not  treat  the  written  Scripture 
as  Paul  treated  the  Scripture  of  his  reverence, 
or  as  the  Master  treated  the  written  word  of 
them  of  old  time,  because  of  change  in  literary 
attitude  and  critical  conception.  But  we  may 
dare  use  as  much  freedom  as  they  in  dealing 
with  a  word  which  is  seen  by  us  even  more 
clearly  to  be  mingled  with  error.  There  is  no 
revelation  from  God  how  to  use  His  word. 
Inspired  men  are  seen  using  the  inspired  word 
with  the  freedom  of  sons.  God  is  found,  in  His 
word,  speaking  with  manifold  voices,  after  mani- 
fold fashions.  The  message  that  is  to  last  is 
heard  dimly  at  first,  coming  out  more  clear  from 
the  confusion  of  temporary  voices  and  methods 
of  speech.  The  vision  seen  of  a  prophet  with 
his  spiritual  eye,  yet  inadequately  portrayed ; 
the  voice  of  God  heard  by  an  apostle  with  his 
inward  ear,  but  recorded  in  hestitating  and 
obscure  language — these  the  listening  heart 
must  recover  for  itself,  rescuing  the  eternal  from 
out  the  perishing. 


IN  A    WRITTEN  KE  VELA  TION  69 

God  blesses  the  unintelligent,  even  the  super- 
stitious use  of  Scripture,  not  because  it  is  unin- 
telligent, but  because  of  its  spiritual  eagerness. 
In  blessing,  He  looks  at  the  heart.  But  a  man 
cannot  plead  a  right  purpose  of  heart  if  he  is 
playing  false  to  the  conviction  of  the  head.  A 
man  cannot  plead  for  his  Scriptural  methods  the 
excuse  of  ignorance  if  in  the  rest  of  his  intel- 
lectual life  he  has  passed  on  to  the  stage  of 
enlightment.  Nor  may  any  Christian  dare  deny 
the  value  of  progress,  of  civilization,  of  fuller 
truth,  despite  the  difficulties  such  progress 
entails  ;  nor  refuse  to  apply  their  discoveries  to 
his  greatest  treasure,  the  Holy  Bible. 

We  are  at  least  attaining  to  a  less  fragmen- 
tary view  of  the  Scriptures.  We  are  finding 
their  message,  not  in  detailed  prophecy  fulfilled, 
but  in  a  divine  purpose  pervading  the  whole 
record  and  surviving  its  incompleteness.  We 
no  longer  bulwark  some  cruel  theological  propo- 
sition by  a  proof  text  wrested  from  its  context 
in  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes.  Harmonists  are 
not  needed  to  save  the  faith  by  reconciling  con- 


70  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

tradictions  In  Gospel  narratives.  We  are  not 
troubled  that  one  of  the  synoptists  was  mis- 
taken in  detail  of  time  or  place.  Such  ignorance 
or  error  was  part  of  the  temporary  method  of  a 
gospel  given  at  first  orally  or  catechetically,  of 
the  impression  made  on  different  hearers  and 
varying  responsiveness.  Crystallized  into  writ- 
ing the  errors  stand  out  conspicuous,  yet  they 
have  no  importance  for  him  who  is  listening  for 
the  voice  of  the  Master  whom  the  narrative 
enshrines. 

V.  Told  all  these  things  and  believing  them  ; 
told  that  the  creation  stories  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment are  ancient  myths  purified ;  that  the  patri- 
archs were  not  persons  ;  that  much  of  the  law 
was  ascribed  to  Moses  from  later  days;  that  Old 
Testament  history  was  written  for  his  own  pur- 
pose, now  by  a  prophet,  now  by  a  priest ;  that 
there  are  questionable  books  in  the  canon,  that 
many  books  are  not  authentic,  that  Bible  writers 
were  mistaken  ;  that  even  Jesus'  words  have 
been  worked  over,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
by  the  Evangelists — what,  we  ask,  in  cumulative 


IN  A   WRITTEN  RE  VEIA  TION  7 1 

alarm,  what  remains  of  God's  word  for  God's 
people  ? 

Let  me  tell  you  what  remains,  with  a  confi- 
dence not  in  the  details  of  my  answer,  but  in  its 
larger  accuracy.  What  remains  as  the  message 
of  the  Holy  Bible? 

The  sacred  story  of  beginnings ;  set  in  a 
frame  work  of  phraseology  and  figure  universal 
among  early  peoples,  but  freed  from  all  gross- 
ness,  touched  with  an  indescribable  moral  and 
religious  power ;  a  marvelous  picture  of  great 
moral  experiences,  as  in  the  story  of  Cain  and 
Abel — man's  responsibility  for  his  fellow,  no 
escape  from  God  or  from  conscience. 

Abraham,  the  embodiment  of  the  Jewish  ideal 
of  manhood ;  an  historical  background  but 
gathering  to  himself  besides  the  noble  deeds 
and  traits  of  centuries ;  no  less  real  because 
idealized,  as  Arthur  is  no  less  England's  hero 
than  Alfred. 

Figure  after  figure  growing  plainer  and  more 
human,  with  the  keen  interest  of  biography,  not 
fearful  of  infirmities  in  their  portrayal ;   figures 


72         THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE   PERMANENT 

to  look  at  and  gauge  one's  self  by,  and  hear 
God  speaking  with  His  children — Jacob  and 
Joseph  and  Joshua,  David  and  Job  and   Isaiah. 

Moses,  founder  of  a  nation,  creator  of  a 
people  out  of  separated  and  suspicious  tribes, 
the  motive  power  of  the  union  a  religious  one. 

That  religion  kept  alive  through  dark  and 
reactionary  times,  a  trust  for  the  world,  the  reli- 
gion of  one,  holy  God. 

Aspiration  and  communion  by  psalmists  sing- 
ing human  needs  and  human  hopes,  in  words 
unequaled  and  inimitable,  as  true  an  expression 
of  man's  faith  and  trust  when  he  looks  up  to 
God  to-day  as  when  uttered  two  thousand  years 
ago. 

Facing,  by  men  of  thought  and  life-discipline, 
of  hard  questions  answered  after  varied  fashions, 
in  the  Wisdom  literature  of  Proverbs,  Ecclesi- 
astes,  and  Job. 

Witnesses  for  righteousness  before  tyranny 
and  lust  by  the  prophets,  men  and  messengers 
of  God. 

The  words  of  the  Master  such  as  never  man 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION  73 

spake;  the  life  of  the  Incarnate  without  confes- 
sion of  sin  or  recall  of  act ;  the  sacred  Figure 
moving  among  men  in  time,  centering  the  gaze 
of  the  ages. 

Simple  peasants  and  fishermen  becoming 
saints  of  the  world  ;  a  Jew  of  provincial  Tarsus 
setting  his  eye  on  Rome  to  conquer  her  for 
Christ ;  known,  remembered,  listened  to  where 
voices  of  the  poets  and  scholars  of  their  time  are 
long  forgotten. 

The  record  of  all  this  our  inspiration,  comfort, 
wonder,  joy ;  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  the  Word  of 
God. 

That  is  what  is  left.  Do  we  want  something 
more,  something  better?  Do  we  want  author- 
ship proved,  prose  in  place  of  poetry,  scientific 
facts,  a  narrative  finished  but  barren  and  power- 
less ?  Do  we  want  any  other  treasure  than  that 
we  have,  to  be  cherished,  to  be  studied,  to  dis- 
cover its  gold  from  the  necessary  and  preserving 
elements  of  alloy  ? 

We  pass,  with  the  next  two  lectures.  Into  the 
heart   of  our  subject,   the  contents  of  the    New 


74         THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE   PERMANENT 

Testament  Revelation  :  in  one  lecture  the  person 
of  Christ,  the  temporary  and  permanent  inci- 
dent to  an  incarnation  ;  in  another  the  teachings 
of  Christ,  the  temporary  clothing,  in  methods  of 
expression,  in  current  association  of  ideas,  of 
eternal  truth.  Let  us  pray  for  grace  to  discover 
and  to  recognize  the  Son  of  the  Father  in  Jesus 
of    Nazareth,  the  eternal  Word   in    the  words 

spoken. 

***** 

The  eloquent  passage  in  the  peroration  of 
Dean  Milman's  Latin  Christianity,  quoted  by 
Robert  Edward  Bartlett  in  his  Bampton  lectures 
may  be  fittingly  appended  to  this  lecture. 
"  What  distinctions  of  conception,  what  precision 
of  language  may  be  indispensable  to  true  faith  ; 
what  part  of  the  ancient  dogmatic  system  may 
be  allowed  silently  to  fall  into  disuse,  as  at  least 
superfluous,  and  as  beyond  the  range  of  human 
thought  and  human  language  ;  how  far  the 
sacred  records  may,  without  real  peril  to  their 
truth,  be  subjected  to  closer  investigation  ;  to 
what  wider  interpretation,  especially  of  the 
Semitic  portion,  those  records  may  submit,  and 
wisely  submit,  in  order  to  harmonize  them  with 


IN  A   WRITTEN  REVELATION-  75 

the  irrefutable  conclusions  of  science ;  how  far 
the  Eastern  vale  of  allegory  which  hangs  over 
their  truth  may  be  lifted  or  torn  away  to  show 
their  unshadowed  essence  ;  how  far  the  poetic 
vehicle  through  which  truth  is  conveyed  may  be 
gently  severed  from  the  truth  ; — all  this  must  be 
left  to  the  future  historian  of  our  religion.  As 
it  is  my  own  confident  belief  that  the  words  of 
Christ,  and  His  words  alone,  shall  not  pass 
away ;  so  I  cannot  presume  to  say  that  men  may 
not  attain  to  a  clearer,  at  the  same  time  more 
full  and  comprehensive  and  balanced  sense  of 
those  words,  than  has  as  yet  been  generally 
received  in  the  Christian  world."  * 


*  Bartlett.     The  Letter  and  the  Spirit,  204. 


LECTURE  III. 

THE    TEMPORARY     AND    THE     PERMANENT    IN    THE 
INCARNATION. 

The  Man  Is  behind  the  Book  :  the  Man  of 
whom  the  Book  Is  record  ;  the  longing  that  He 
come,  the  need  for  Him,  His  appearance  in  the 
flesh,  the  witness  to  Him  of  the  Apostles  and 
the  newborn  church.  The  Incarnate  One,  the 
Word  made  Flesh,  shares  the  characteristics  of 
the  Written  Word  in  that  He  needs  translation 
and  interpretation.  His  permanent  Person  to  be 
discovered  for  man  out  from  its  temporary  vesti- 
ture. 

I.  The  Incarnation  Is  becoming  the  concenter- 
ing fact  of  Christian  thought  and  hope.  In  the 
Incarnation  man  Is  brought  face  to  face  with  his 
God  for  cleansing  and  for  Inspiration.  God  is 
seen  In  Jesus  Christ. 

The  historical  and  the  spiritual,  the  human 
and  the  divine  are  brought  together  in  one  em- 


IN  THE  INCARNA  TION  77 

bodlment  in  the  Incarnation.  For  permanent 
value  to  man  they  must  be  separated  anew,  at 
least  In  thought. 

Jesus  Christ  lived  at  a  certain  time,  In  a  certain 
place,  of  a  certain  people.  The  Incarnation  was, 
and  must  be,  an  appearing  in  a  specific  human 
nature.  Very  man  must  be  individual  man  as 
well,  if  he  be  real  man.  "  As  empirical  the  per- 
son is  a  unit  ;  as  transcendental  he  belongs  to  a 
whole,  and  thinks  In  the  terms  of  the  universal. 
As  empirical  he  is  a  creature  of  time  and  space, 
comes  of  a  given  race,  is  born  at  a  given  time  in 
a  given  place  to  a  given  family,  inherits  a  given 
past,  is  fashioned  by  a  given  present,  and  is  a 
factor  of  a  given  future  ;  but  as  transcendental, 
his  affinities  are  all  with  the  eternal,  and  all  his 
work  is  for  It."*  Race,  family,  place,  time,  edu- 
cation and  opportunity  are  essential  factors  In 
the  life  of  the  natural  man.  If  the  supernatural 
be  also  represented  in  him.  It  is  through  the  con- 
flict of  these  two  views  of  the  one  person  ''that 


*  Fairbairn.     Philosophy   of   the     Christian    Religion, 


78  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

the  simple  story  of  a  humble  and  beautiful  life 
is  turned  into  the  supreme  drama  of  history." 

That  union  of  the  historical  and  spiritual,  of 
the  human  and  divine  in  the  Incarnation,  is  both 
its  glory  and  its  difficulty.  It  summons  to  dis- 
crimination. The  result  of  that  discrimination 
is  man's  greatest  treasure. 

Just  because  of  that  in  the  Incarnation  which 
makes  it  the  revelation  to  man  of  God's  nature 
and  of  God's  way  of  salvation,  namely,  the  touch 
on  man  himself  of  the  divine,  must  it  also  wrap 
up  that  divine  within  human  folds.  By  these 
perceptible,  perishable  garments  the  divine  is 
discovered,  made  our  own.  The  divine  is  re- 
tained and  held  on  to  as  its  several  human  gar- 
ments are  allowed  for  and  ignored.  So  the 
drapery  of  a  parable,  furnishing  its  attraction 
for  the  reader,  forms  no  parts  of  its  lesson. 

Jesus  :  a  son  of  Judah,  a  son  of  Mary,  a  son 
of  Nazareth,  a  son  of  the  First  Century  :  in  all 
these  found  to  be  Son  of  God.  These  appar- 
ent relationships  do  not  exhaust  what  He  was, 
yet  with   these   we  must  begin.      Christianity  is 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  79 

first  a  child  of  its  age  ;  so  much  the  more  note- 
worthy its  differences  from  its  age.  It  inherited 
temporary  and  unworthy  traditions  ;  it  was  in 
danger  of  crystalhzing  some  of  these  into  per- 
manency ;  perhaps  some  have  been  crystalHzed 
and  need  resifting.  The  Master,  too,  was  hu- 
man, *'  and  with  the  divine  intuitions  of  his  mind 
were  inevitably  mingled  undivine  traditions  of 
his  country  and  his  time."  * 

The  ever  fresh  problem  for  Christian  study, 
the  characteristic  problem  of  Christianity  as 
God's  fullest  revelation  of  Himself,  is  this  union 
of  the  historical  and  the  spiritual.  Does  the 
Incarnation  detract  from  or  add  to  the  value  of 
Christianity  as  a  religion  for  man  ?  Have  we 
something  in  the  Word  made  Flesh  to  explain 
away  or  to  rejoice  over  ?  Why  !  it  is  the  fact 
and  truth  that  gives  Christianity  at  once  its 
beauty  and  Its  power.  That  the  difficulties 
Involved  summon  to  exercise  the  high  faculty  of 
discrimination  is   tribute  to  the  nature  of   man 


*  Martineau.     Seat   of  Authority  in  Religion.     325. 


8o  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

for  whose  salvation  the  Son  of  God  took  that 
nature  as  His  own.  Answering  this  question  as 
we  must  answer  it,  that  the  Incarnation  is  the 
glorious  truth  of  our  Christian  faith,  though  it 
involve  things  hard  to  receive  and  hard  to 
explain,  we  must  accept  its  conditions  and 
address  ourselves  to  their  solution. 

The  Christ  of  history  becomes  for  each  of  us 
the  Christ  of  experience,  both  of  them  the 
expression  of  God's  love  seen  in  the  face  of 
His  dear  Son.  The  Kerr  lectures  for  1897, 
delivered  by  Dr.  David  W.  Forrest,  bear  title, 
The  Christ  of  History  and  of  Experience.  At 
the  outset  the  apparent  inconsistency  is  strongly 
put  between  an  immediate  realization  of  Christ's 
presence  in  the  soul  and  a  faith  requiring 
intellectual  appreciation  of  an  historic  person. 
"  Religion,  it  is  said,  Is  a  spiritual  experience, 
the  right  relation  of  the  soul  to  God  ;  and  yet, 
this  right  relation  is  made  dependent  on  the 
belief  of  what  took  place  hundreds  of  years 
ago."  The  reconciliation  of  this  apparent  incon- 
sistency Is  at  once  the  problem  and  the  power  of 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  8 1 

the  Christian  rehgion.  In  his  eighth  lecture, 
The  Relation  of  the  Spiritual  to  the  Historical 
in  Christian  Faith,  Dr.  Forrest  puts  their  recon- 
ciliation as  not  incongruous,  but  characteristic 
of  all  man's  highest  acts.  Outward  testimony 
and  inward  sight  must  always  go  together  for 
any  complete  moral  work  in  man.  *'  Historical 
belief  is  a  constant  factor  in  determining  all  our 
ideas  of  duty."  Man's  beliefs  and  resolves  ''  are 
determined  very  largely  by  the  attitude  which 
he  assumes  towards  persons  and  incidents  of 
bygone  times,  of  whose  reality  he  is  convinced 
through  the  witness  of  others."  The  soul  long- 
ing for  deliverance  and  fellowship  with  God  may 
say.  Just  the  message  I  need  is  the  story  of  one 
who  lived  a  stainless  life,  gave  that  life  in  others' 
behalf,  rose  from  the  dead,  ever  liveth  to  give 
forgiveness  and  renewal  to  those  who  give  them- 
selves to  Him.  "  How  can  I  be  sure  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  actually  such  a  one?  A  link  is  want- 
ing to  unite  the  historic  Jesus  and  the  Church's 
interpretation  of  Him.  The  Gospels  are  that 
link.''     The  Gospels  give  us  a  picture  that,  with 


82         THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

all  our  questioning  and  wonder,  is  its  own  best 
argument.  It  is  of  *'  a  humanity  which  tran- 
scends itself  and  yet  remains  human."  This 
is  no  dream  of  the  idealist,  no  fiction  of  the 
philosopher.  It  is  the  Figure  of  our  hope  and 
of  our  need.  It  is  this  fact  on  which  experience 
may  fasten,  this  blending  of  the  outward  and  the 
inward,  which  is  Christianity's  unique  and  tran- 
scendent gift.  "  It  is  exactly  this  direct  touch 
with  the  historical  Jesus  which  the  simplest 
Christian  knows  to  lie  at  the  root  of  his  confi- 
dence. There  are  times  when  his  own  experi- 
ence of  Christ's  presence  seems  to  falter,  and 
when  even  the  testimony  of  Christian  hearts  and 
lives  around  him  fails  to  reassure  him.  He  is 
haunted  by  the  fear  that  they,  like  himself,  may 
be  swayed  too  much  by  moods  and  fond  imagin- 
ings, and  he  is  only  restored  by  the  sense  of 
an  indubitably  real  Christ  speaking  to  him  out 
of   the   Gospels."  *     That   historic  Master,  the 


*  Forrest.     The  Christ  of  History  and  of  Experience. 
Chap.  VIII,  passim. 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  83 

incarnate  Son  of  God,  is  to  be  seen,  is  to  be 
heard  as  Master  and  Teacher  for  to-day  through 
a  translating  medium  which  shall  elimmate  the 
passing  to  retain  the  abiding  features. 

We  must  then  read  and  study  the  story  of  the 
Incarnation.  We  must  not  come  to  it  with  a 
prior  conception  of  what  the  Incarnate  God 
ought  to  be.  "  It  is  as  illegitimate  to  argue  that 
He  must  have  observed  common  prayer  because 
He  was  a  man,  as  that  He  must  have  known 
the  day  and  hour  of  the  last  judgment  because 
He  was  the  Son  of  God.  The  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation  is  essentially  an  induction  from 
facts."  *  These  facts  must  be  known  and  weighed 
quite  apart  from  any  abstract  notions.  If  God 
and  man  were  in  union  it  was  an  unique  phenome- 
non, one  for  whose  manifestations  no  other 
experience  has  prepared  us.  We  must  read  the 
story  and  draw  for  ourselves  the  new  picture  it 
gives  us.  Jesus  Christ  of  the  Gospels  must  tell 
us  what  God  Is  like. 


*  Forrest.     The  Christ  of  History  and  of  Experience, 
481. 


84  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

As  the  Figure  grows  clearer,  as  the  concept  of 
God  becomes  more  defined,  our  appreciative 
intelHgence  must  allow  for  and  drop  off  the 
inevitable  human  accessories  of  God  incarnate. 

This  eliminating  process  must  not  be  too  sud- 
den, or  too  radical,  losing  for  us  the  historical 
Jesus  altogether.  We  spin  our  fancies  about  a 
divine  being,  then  open  our  Bibles  to  find  Him 
much  more  like  ourselves.  A  pious  bishop  of 
the  Middle  Ages  prayed  earnestly  that  it  might 
be  revealed  to  him  what  Jesus  did  in  His  boy- 
hood. Then  the  bishop  dreamed  a  dream.  He 
saw  a  carpenter  at  his  work  and  a  boy  helping 
him.  Then  the  mother  set  porridge  on  the 
table  and  bade  them  eat.  And  the  bishop  was 
watching  behind  the  door.  Then  said  the  boy, 
**  Shall  not  the  man  also  eat  with  us  ?  "  A  truer 
revelation  of  the  divine  character  this  than 
invented  infancy-miracles  and  aureolas. 

Yet  the  recorded  story,  while  it  reveals,  does 
not  exhaust  His  nature.  Else  were  Christianity 
local,  the  religion  of  an  oriental  master.  The 
Church  has  been  entrusted  by  the  records  of  the 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  05 

Gospel  with  a  Message  and  a  Lord  of  much 
larger  embrace  than  its  first  reading  or  interpre- 
tation realized.  Jesus  is  not  limited  by  the  race 
and  age  to  which  He  was  born.  All  other 
saints  and  sages,  marked  with  characteristics 
their  own  admire,  are  objects  of  aversion  or 
disapproval  to  peoples  of  alien  training.  "  Jesus 
is  the  only  oriental  that  the  Occident  has  admired 
with  an  admiration  that  has  become  worship. 
His  is  the  only  name  the  West  has  carried  into 
the  East  which  the  East  has  received  and  praised 
and  loved  with  sincerity  and  without  qualifica- 
tion."* "It  is  easy,"  writes  Bartlett  in  his 
Bampton  lectures,  "to  assign  too  much  impor- 
tance to  the  temporary  element  in  the  Christian 
Gospel.  For,  though  Christ  was  called  the  Son 
of  David,  though  He  was  descended  from 
Jewish  ancestors  and  brought  up  amid  Jewish 
surroundings,  yet  He  was  in  a  far  truer  and 
more  characteristic  sense  the  Son  of  Man."  f 


*  Fairbairn.     The  Philosophy  of   the    Christian    Reli- 
gion,    369, 

t  Bartlett.     The  Letter  and  the  Spirit,     ^d. 


86         THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

The  divine  Christ  emerges  from  the  picture, 
naturally,  surely,  yet  requiring  the  discerning  mind 
not  to  read  in  H  im  as  divine  what  were  only  neces- 
sary features  of  earth.  The  divine  Christ  is  found 
within  the  historic  Jesus.  The  study  of  the  Chris- 
tian Ages  is  the  Person  of  Christ  :  to  make  Him 
real,  neither  losing  from  our  facts  the  historical, 
nor  falsifying  our  ideal  of  the  divine.  There  is 
danger  on  either  hand.  We  cannot  wisely  read 
only  the  Synoptists  with  their  picture  of  One 
who  went  about  doing  good,  nor  yet  the  Gospel 
of  St.  John  with  Its  proclamation  of  the  Word 
made  Flesh.  If  the  one  is  the  primer  and  the 
other  the  advanced  text-book  of  the  Story  of 
Jesus  Christ,  we  need  to  read  His  story  again 
and  again  as  children  to  make  real  our  concep- 
tion as  philosophers. 

It  may  be  asked.  How  far  is  It  possible  to 
rescue  the  permanent,  considering  the  fragmen- 
tary nature  of  the  material  of  the  Gospels? 
They  are  not  a  full  and  orderly  presentation  of 
the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  ;  they  are  rather  collec- 
tions of  His  sayings  and   His  doings  made  with 


IN  THE  INCARNATION.  8/ 

a  purpose,  either  catechetical  for  Christian  life, 
or  demonstrative  for  Christian  faith.  Yet  in 
their  very  simplicity  and  honesty  they  have  been 
found  wonderfully  effective  in  the  portrayal  of 
their  matchless  Figure.  They  have  proved  capa- 
ble of  adaptation  to  the  comprehension  and 
needs  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  of  races 
of  every  training  and  attainment.  The  mission- 
ary to  our  own  churchless  and  Chrlstless  fellow- 
citizens,  as  to  the  heathen  in  all  stages  of 
ignorance  and  sin,  has  a  like  task  to  that  unto 
which  we  are  addressing  ourselves,  to  discover 
and  make  real  from  the  story  of  Jesus  In  the  old 
Gospels  the  divine  Christ,  Master  and  Lord  for 
all  the  world.  The  task,  to  be  complete,  re- 
quires both  scholarship  and  devoutness,  each  of 
them  open-minded.  We  must  fall  back  at  last 
for  satisfaction  over  our  conclusions,  as  in  all 
other  processes  involving  moral  assurance,  on 
the  Inner  witness.  This  is  only  to  say  under 
another  form  that  a  man  must  be  a  good  man  if 
he  would  know  God.  If  a  son  of  peace  be  there 
Christ's  peace  shall  rest  upon  him. 


88  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

II.  These  considerations — the  Incarnate  God 
appearing  in  time  and  place,  His  story  told  in  a 
record  human  like  His  own  manifestation — have 
both  a  theological  and  a  practical  bearing. 

I.  Theological.  The  temporary  conditions 
of  the  Incarnation  influence  our  thinking,  our 
theological  conception  of  Christ. 

Whatever  our  attitude  may  be  toward  what  is 
technically  known  as  the  Kenosis,  Christian 
Theology  must  hold  certain  positions  having  an 
affinity  with  the  kenotic  idea.  In  some  sense, 
Christ  in  the  Incarnation  "  emptied  Himself,"  in 
part  or  for  a  time,  of  attributes  or  activities  be- 
longing to  His  unveiled  divinity.  We  are  wiser 
to  hold  on  to  the  principle  of  some  such  laying 
aside  of  powers,  the  necessity  thereof  involved 
in  the  very  fact  of  God  becoming  truly  man,  the 
comfort  and  the  help  to  our  humanity  in  such 
condescension,  than  to  try  to  dogmatize  on  its 
corollaries. 

Some  temporary  features  of  an  incarnation 
may  be  affirmed  in  general  as  unquestionably 
true.     These  have  a  deep  effect  on  our  thinking 


IN  THE  INCARNA  TION 


as  we  face  the  fact  of  God  Incarnate,  though 
our  minds  be  unable  to  follow  to  the  end  all 
which  they  involve.  The  divinity  of  Christ  must 
be  championed  as  a  reality  rather  than  as  a 
notion  ;  as  it  lifts  the  level  of  our  living  and  as- 
piration more  than  because  it  furnishes  some- 
thing to  argue  for. 

First  :  The  Incarnate  Christ  laid  aside  the 
metaphysical  attributes  of  the  divine  nature. 

When  we  look  at  Christ,  read  His  story,  see 
His  life,  we  see  divinity,  but  we  see  it  shorn  of 
omnipresence,  omnipotence,  eternity.  We  see 
it  with  what  may  be  called  the  essential  attri- 
butes at  least  put  in  the  background. 

Man  looking  at  God,  looking  for  God,  must 
look  with  human  eyes,  must  approach  divinity 
from  the  man-side,  as  He  is  pictured  in  the 
human  Gospel  story.  Human  eyes  cannot  see 
the  all-mighty,  cannot  compass  the  omnipresent. 
Herein  the  very  reason  for  the  Incarnation.  If 
God  Is  to  be  known  as  a  reality.  He  must  mani- 
fest Himself  to  eye  of  sense.  Eye  of  sense  can- 
not behold  the  infinite. 


90  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Metaphysical  attributes  would  not  give  God 
to  man,  never  have  revealed  Him.  They  are 
abstractions,  they  cannot  be  made  concrete  to 
man's  apprehension.  Try  to  picture,  to  present, 
eternity.  It  cannot  be  done.  The  conception 
cannot  be  grasped.  If  grasped  at  all  it  is  not 
valued,  has  no  touch  on  man  to  change  either 
his  character  or  his  ideas,  leaves  him  wide-eyed 
and  dumb.  God  must  come  out  of  eternity  into 
time ;  must  leave  omnipresence  for  locality  ; 
must  drop  omnipotence  for  infancy  and  youth, 
for  food  and  sleep. 

It  is  no  miracle  that  God  be  everywhere,  be 
invisible,  hold  all  power  in  His  hand — for  God 
is  spirit.  The  incarnate  Jesus,  by  the  very  fact 
that  the  Word  in  Him  became  flesh  ceases  to 
exercise  these  essential  attributes  of  the  God- 
head. The  incarnation  is  no  assuming  of  a 
part  on  the  stage  of  an  artificial  world  ;  it  is  a 
real  entering  into  our  human  nature. 

This  is  not  to  deny  God's  essential  attributes, 
nor  even  to  fail  in  realizing  that  they  belong  to 
God  as  God.      But  their  existence    in    Him    is 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  9 1 

reached  by  a  process  of  reasoning.  They  are 
truths  deduced  from  what  we  see,  are  not  charac- 
teristics seen  in  themselves.  The  articles  of  the 
Creed,  so  far  as  they  are  other  than  the  affirma- 
tion of  the  facts  of  the  Gospel  story,  are  truths 
reached  by  intellectual  struggle,  conquered  for 
itself,  through  a  great  process  of  elimination,  by 
the  faith  of  the  Church.  Each  generation  must 
in  a  measure  repeat  that  process  for  its  own 
soul  life,  must  find  the  eternal  God  through  His 
human  revelation  in  Jesus.  Else  the  Incarnation 
was  only  of  value  for  the  day  of  Jesus'  human 
life.  Else  we  in  our  day  are  willing  and  able  to 
forego  that  approach  to  the  knowledge  of  God 
found  necessary  through  all  the  travail-pangs 
which  preceded  Christ's  coming,  and  conquered 
for  mankind  through  generations  of  struggle 
since  His  day.  We  are  not  willing  to  fail  our 
part  in  victory  won  for  truth  by  effort.  We 
cannot  find  God,  for  ourselves,  as  a  heritage 
bequeathed  us  ;  can  find  Him  only  as  the  Son 
takes  us,  too,  by  the  hand  and  leads  us  into  His 
presence.     To  approach  God  by  the  Creed-side, 


92         THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

to  begin  our  knowledge  of  Him  by  the  affirma- 
tions of  the  Creeds  to  which  we  compel  our- 
selves to  bow,  is  to  miss  the  purpose  of  the 
Incarnation ;  is  to  forswear  for  ourselves  the 
duty  laid  upon  man  by  his  nature  to  reach  truth 
eternal  by  hardness. 

Jesus  Christ,  in  His  Incarnation,  revealed 
God  apart  from  the  metaphysical  attributes 
which  belone  to  our  idea  of  Him  as  eternal. 

Second :  Christ's  knowledge  was  limited  in 
the  Incarnation. 

It  is  His  own  affirmation  that  there  are  facts 
He  does  not  know,  facts  belonging  only  to  the 
Father,  not  the  Father's  will  that  they  be  shared 
with  His  son  in  His  day  of  earth.  He  becomes 
man  in  that  He  questions  for  information,  that 
He  marvels,  that  He  Is  amazed,  that  He  is 
troubled  in  spirit,  that  He  hopes  against  hope. 
Once  again,  and  earnestly,  I  repeat,  these  feel- 
ings are  not  assumed,  any  more  than  the  human 
nature  of  Christ  is  assumed,  as  a  dramatic  spec- 
tacle. Men  are  not  to  be  impressed  by  the  life 
and  death  of  Jesus  Christ  as  they  are  impressed 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  93 

by  a  play,  however  tremendous  may  be  the 
power  of  the  stage.  The  Hfe  of  the  Incarnate 
One,  His  feeHngs,  His  pains,  His  hopes.  His 
disappointments,  His  growth  in  mind  and  spirit- 
ual plans,  are  just  as  real  as  the  experiences 
of  any  human  life  we  know  ;  are  just  as  real 
as  is  God's  existence  and  God's  wonderful 
nature ;  are  standards  of  reality  for  man  as  man 
looks,  on  the  one  part,  at  his  wondrous  self,  on 
the  other  part  at  his  God  in  whose  image  he  has 
been  made. 

It  is  no  impeachment  of  Christ's  divinity,  see- 
ing that  divinity  had  consented  to  tabernacle  in 
the  flesh,  that  He  should  not  know  what  man 
can  never  know  without  study,  without  acquir- 
ing the  knowledofe. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Jesus  knew  higher 
mathematics  or  the  existence  of  America,  no 
reason  why  He  should  know  these  and  like 
difficult  questions  either  of  reasoning  or  dis- 
covery, no  methods  by  which  He  could  properly 
become  familiar  with  them.  He  contented  Him- 
self with  the  scientific  and  secular  attainment  of 


94         THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

His  time.  The  concession  of  this  fact  would 
save  Christian  reading  of  the  Gospels  and  Chris- 
tian interpretation  of  their  difficulties  from 
many  an  unnecessary  and  humiliating  experi- 
ence. There  is  an  unawareness  to  be  allowed 
for  in  the  Incarnate  Christ  which,  while  it  helps 
to  explain  Him,  constitutes,  I  may  say,  a  nec- 
essary feature  of  His  Incarnation  and  one  that 
brings  Him  closer  not  only  to  our  understand- 
ing, but  to  our  sympathy.  "  Not  having  come 
into  the  world  to  teach  science,  He  contented 
Himself  with  the  opinions  He  had  inherited 
with  the  rest  of  His  people,  and  which  consti- 
tuted the  science  of  nature  of  His  little  popular 
environment,  without  concerning  Himself  as  to 
whether  these  opinions  were  erroneous  or  cor 
rect."  * 

It  may  help  us  both  to  believe  and  to  value 
this  concession  of  ignorance  in  the  Incarnation, 
to  remember  that  it  is  in  harmony  with  God's 
wisdom    as    we    see    it    elsewhere.     God    never 


Sabatier.  Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Religion,  74-5 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  95 

gives  a  man  without  study  the  knowledge  of 
facts  and  truths  for  whose  acquisition  He  has 
endowed  him  with  capacities.  However  su- 
premely necessary  the  knowledge  of  the  Chinese 
language  to  the  missionary,  he  must  learn  how 
to  preach  the  Gospel  in  their  own  tongue  to 
that  people  by  years  of  painful  application. 
What  a  converting  power  that  a  missionary 
should  stand  forth  the  first  day  of  his  coming 
and  tell  the  story  of  Christ  in  a  correct  vernacu- 
lar !  It  is  not  God's  way,  nor  would  it  be  wise 
to  empty  duty  of  hardship.  Whatever  the  nature 
of  the  Gift  of  Tongues  there  is  no  evidence 
that  the  first  Apostles  were  able  in  their  mission- 
ary journeys  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  foreign 
peoples  without  an  interpreter.  In  our  reading 
of  the  Gospel  to-day  there  are  always  alterna- 
tives of  interpretation,  one  of  which  a  man  may 
take  to  his  error.  God  does  not  compel  either 
the  acceptance  or  the  appreciation  of  truth.  He 
summons  man  to  exercise  freely,  and  to  the 
utmost  of  his  power,  the  gifts  of  acquisition  and 
of  discernment  He  has  bestowed  upon  him.     To 


96         THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

hold  that  Jesus  had  a  reserved  knowledge  of  all 
facts  and  truths,  a  treasury  of  learning  to  draw 
upon  which  He  had  not  Himself  filled,  a  capac- 
ity to  call  out  the  mysteries  of  geography  and 
history  and  natural  science  from  a  store-house 
of  divinity,  is  to  discredit  God's  wise  way  of 
educating  His  children,  under  plea  of  fancied 
loyalty  to  His  Son  sent  into  the  world. 

The  story  of  Jesus'  life  for  the  thirty  years 
before  His  ministry,  brief  as  is  the  record,  con- 
veys the  unequivocal  impression  of  a  growth,  a 
development.  He  increased  in  wisdom,  as  in 
stature.  He  came  to  Himself.  He  grew  into 
self-consciousness  by  the  gradual  discipline  and 
training  of  life,  as  well  as  by  occasional  marked 
and  epochal  experiences.  The  weekly  service 
in  the  synagogue  of  the  town  where  He  had 
been  brought  up,  the  carpenter's  bench  and  the 
lily-studded  fields  ministered  to  the  growing 
realization  of  His  mission  as  much  as  did  the 
talk  with  the  doctors  in  the  temple  at  the  age  of 
twelve  and  the  crowning  baptism  by  Jordan  at 
the  age  of  thirty.     What   He  knew  of  the  text 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  9/ 

of  the  Old  Testament,  of  the  history  of  His  peo- 
ple, He  had  to  acquire  by  study.  For  the  con- 
sciousness in  the  blossoming  life  from  babyhood 
to  manhood,  that  he  was  the  Messiah  of  God, 
that  He  was  the  revealer  of  the  divine  will  and 
sharer  of  the  divine  nature,  He  had  to  wait 
upon  God  with  all  His  faculties  alert  to  learn 
and  to  appropriate.  He  came  to  the  realization 
of  His  divine  nature  and  mission  no  otherwise 
than  we  learn  what  we  are  and  what  we  are  to 
do,  by  studying  facts  and  mastering  experiences 
within  and  without.  He  was  a  revelation  first 
to  Himself,  then  He  revealed  to  mankind  the 
wondrous  things  He  had  discovered.  The  Gos- 
pel did  not  drop  from  the  sky,  it  was  not  sent 
by  an  angel  ;  Jesus  was  born  from  the  very 
bosom  of  the  human  race,  and  Jesus  gave  us  the 
Gospel  that  had  blossomed  in  His  inmost  heart.* 
So  every  man,  with  a  message  and  a  mission,  is 
first  a  self-discoverer,  then  a  revealer  to  others. 
Strange  how  we  admit  this  early  Ignorance  and 


*  Sabatier.     Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Religion,  57. 


98  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

gradual  self-discovery  everywhere  as  a  fact,  and 
hesitate  to  use  It  as  an  interpretive  principle ! 
It  is  the  business  of  thoughtful  Christian 
men  to  bring  theories  Into  harmony  with 
facts,  and  so  to  make  God's  revelation  more 
real.  In  the  Incarnation  Jesus  was  ignorant 
of  much  secular  knowledge,  learned  as  man 
learns,  came  to  Himself  even  in  His  divine 
inheritance. 

But  such  a  limitation  in  the  knowledge  of  our 
Lord's  human  mind,  inherent  In  the  Incarnation, 
forms  no  hindrance  to  His  moral  unity  with  His 
Father. 

For,  third :  The  Moral  Attributes  of  God 
are  undiminished  in  the  Incarnation. 

From  the  first  dawnlnor  of  moral  conscious- 
ness  in  Jesus  there  was  a  perfect  harmony 
between  His  will  and  the  will  of  His  Father. 
That  harmony  with  God  Is  goodness  :  its  per- 
fection is  a  partaking  of  that  in  the  divine  nature 
which  alone  marks  God  off  as  worthy  of  man's 
unstinted  love  and  worship ;  which  alone,  by 
contrast    with     gods    many    and    lords    many. 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  99 

reveals  Him  as  the  Father  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  man's  Heavenly  Father, 
the  Holy  God.  Union  with  God  brings,  is, 
holiness  ;  it  is  not  necessarily  scientific  learning. 

There  is  no  need  that  God's  moral  attributes 
be  lost  in  the  Incarnation,  that  they  even  be 
under  eclipse  from  earth's  standards  of  good- 
ness, or  put  out  of  sight  for  a  time  by  earth's 
limitations.  Goodness  in  man  is  just  the  same 
thing  as  goodness  in  God.  It  is  harmony  with 
God's  will.  That  may  appear  at  the  earliest 
moment  when  that  will  is  seen  and  known.  In 
a  being  with  whom  such  harmony  has  been  the 
earliest  possible  choice  goodness  is  not  acquired 
by  study.  Christianity's  secret  is  Christ's  rela- 
tion to  His  Father.  Christ's  intellectual  out- 
look is  not  ours ;  ours  may  surpass  His. 
Christ's  religious  outlook  is  eternal.  In  that 
religious  realm,  the  harmony  of  holy  will,  God's 
essential  and  moral  attributes  meet ;  perfection 
is  possible  in  the  Incarnation. 

The  Sinlessness  of  Christ  is  our  priceless 
treasure.      In  studying  that  we  need   no  separa- 


lOO       THE   TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

tion  between  the  temporary  and  the  permanent. 
It  is  a  positive,  rather  than  a  negative  character- 
istic, best  stated  as  moral  perfection,  an  all- 
roundness  in  His  Life.  Individuals,  nations, 
reliofionists  stand  for  some  one  virtue ;  "  the 
saints  of  the  East  would  not  be  canonized  in  the 
West,  while  the  qualities  which  the  cultured  West 
most  admires  the  civilized  East  holds  in  dis- 
dainful contempt."  *  There  is  in  Christ  a  bal- 
ance, a  proportion,  at  once  difficult  to  conceive, 
to  portray,  and  certainly  to  reproduce.  The 
Evangelists  had  before  them  the  difficult  task  of 
portraying  a  Figure  that  had  never  before  been 
conceived,  unitincr  in  Himself  attributes  hereto- 
fore  held  to  be  contradictory.  They  have  suc- 
ceeded in  picturing  a  simple  and  natural  Person 
whom  we  at  once  recognize  as  a  reality,  yet  all 
the  time  feel  to  be  divine. 

There  is  in  Christ,  as  we  read  the  story  of 
His  life,  no  repentance,  no  confession  in  prayer, 
no  haunting  doubts  lest   He  has  erred,  no  recall 


*  Fairbairn.     Philosophy    of    the    Christian    Religion, 
369.     352. 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  lOI 

of  uttered  judgments.  There  is  forgiveness  of 
others,  with  no  conscious  need  that  He  be 
forgiven  Himself.  The  impression  is  so  unique 
and  compelHng  as  to  enlist  the  support  of  all 
apologists,  Channing,  Martineau,  Bushnell,  Bruce, 
as  well  as  the  most  conventional  champions  of 
the  faith.  Bushnell's  Tenth  Chapter,  "The 
Character  of  Jesus  forbids  His  possible  Classifi- 
cation with  Men  "  is  still  a  present-day  classic  on 
the  claims  of  the  Incarnate  One.  **  Men  under- 
take to  be  spiritual,"  I  quote  what  is  to  me 
one  of  its  most  telling  passages,  **  and  they  be- 
come ascetic  ;  or,  endeavoring  to  hold  a  liberal 
view  of  the  comforts  and  pleasures  of  society, 
they  are  soon  buried  in  the  world,  and  slaves  to 
its  fashions  ;  or,  holding  a  scrupulous  watch  to 
keep  out  every  particular  sin,  they  become 
legal,  and  fall  out  of  liberty ;  or,  charmed  with 
the  noble  and  heavenly  liberty,  they  run  to 
negligence  and  irresponsible  living ;  so  the 
earnest  become  violent,  the  fervent  fanatical 
and  censorious,  the  gentle  waver,  the  firm  turn 
bigots,    the    liberal    grow   lax,  the    benevolent, 


102         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

ostentatious.  Poor  human  infirmity  can  hold 
nothing  steady — the  character  of  Christ  is  never 
modified,  even  by  a  shade  of  rectification.  It 
is  one  and  the  same  throughout.  He  makes  no 
improvement,  prunes  no  extravagances,  returns 
from  no  eccentricities.  The  balance  of  his  char- 
acter is  never  disturbed,  or  readjusted,  and  the 
astounding  assumption  on  which  it  is  based  is 
never  shaken,  even  by  a  suspicion  that  he  falters 
in  it."  * 

The  virgin  life  is  really  the  best  evidence  for 
the  virgin  birth.  The  question  how  Christ  came 
into  the  world  was  a  late  one  to  be  asked  and 
answered,  in  the  circle  of  early  Christian  be- 
lievers. St.  Paul  does  not  seem  to  have  asked 
it  at  all.  ''  The  Incarnation  was  for  him  a  mira- 
culous fact,  whatever  its  mode."  On  the  pre- 
vailing disquietude  over  the  virgin  birth  it  may 
be  said  :  that  the  stories  of  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
Luke  about  Jesus'  birth  are  a  fitting  presenta- 
tion of  the  origin  of  a  sinless  life  ;  that  a  miracle 


*  Bushnell.     Nature  and  the  Supernatural,  288. 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  IO3 

in  the  moral  world  is  as  difficult  to  comprehend 
as  a  miracle  in  the  physical  world ;  that  new 
beings  in  God's  creation  demand  new  beginnings. 
For  my  own  part,  the  story  presents  to  me  no 
exceptional  or  insurmountable  difficulties.  It 
has  been  felt,  and  gravely,  that  the  virgin  birth 
empties  the  Incarnation  of  vital  significance  and 
reality ;  this  may  be  pronounced  a  theological 
rather  than  a  religious  difficulty.  Yet  of  the 
Incarnation,  as  of  the  Atonement  and  the  In- 
spiration of  the  Scripture,  we  are  safe  in  hold- 
ing that  the  fact  is  alone  of  supreme  value,  and 
the  method  of  the  fact  secondary  and  specula- 
tive. The  wisdom  of  the  Church,  by  contrast 
with  the  sectarian  spirit,  has  been  not  to  dogma- 
tize on  methods,  at  least  not  to  enforce  her 
theories  ;  rather  to  proclaim  and  to  rejoice  in 
the  value  of  the  facts  of  our  religion.  The  fact 
of  the  Incarnation  belongs  to  our  permanent 
treasure  of  revelation  ;  the  details  of  its  method 
and  manifestation  partake  of  those  temporary 
features  which  each  age  must  read  and  translate 
anew  for  itself. 


104       THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE   PERMANENT 

These  temporary,  as  contrasted  with  the 
permanent  aspects  of  the  Incarnation  have  also. 

2.  A  Practical  Bearing, 

Our  knowledge  of  God,  our  interpretation  of 
His  attitude  toward  man,  our  growth  into  His 
likeness,  are  all  mediated  through  the  Incarna- 
tion ;  as  is  our  ability  to  discover  what  is  abiding 
In  Him,  and  for  ourselves,  out  of  His  temporary 
manifestation  in  the  world  of  His  Children. 

First :  Our  only  satisfying  knowledge  of 
God  is  through  Jesus  Christ.  "Jesus  has  for 
the  Christian  consciousness  the  religious  value 
of  God."  If  God  be  like  Jesus  then  I  can 
worship  Him.  Strip  Jesus  of  the  Incidental  and 
we  have  what  we  can  embrace  and  love  In  God. 
*'  God  Is  a  spirit,  and  of  what  quality  His  spirit 
is  the  man  Jesus  declares.  God  is  love,  and 
what  divine  love  means  the  ministry  of  Jesus 
In  life  and  death  shows.  God  is  good  in  the 
specific  sense  of  being  gracious,  generous,  phil- 
anthropic, and  the  historic  life  of  Jesus  Interprets 
for  us  the  philanthropy  of  God.  Knowledge  of 
the  historical  Jesus  is  the  foundation  at  once  of 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  IO5 

a  sound  Christian  theology  and  of  a  thoroughly 
healthy  Christian  life."  * 

There  is  an  unexpressed  feeling  of  impatience 
that  we  cannot  know  God  absolutely,  cannot  see 
goodness  just  as  it  is,  apart  from  questions  of 
money  and  clothes  and  food  ;  cannot  empty  it 
of  all  the  accessories  whereby  it  is  explained 
and  exemplified.  We  know  nothing  of  good- 
ness apart  from  good  persons  ;  that  is  why  we 
may  not  lose  personality  from  God.  We  have 
no  idea  of  goodness  outside  of  good  actions, 
and  good  actions  use  the  means  at  their  dis- 
posal. The  endeavor  to  relegate  goodness  to 
the  invisible,  to  the  realm  of  pure  spirit,  is  land- 
ing many  in  oriental  and  theosophic  religions 
whose  impeachment  is  not  so  much  that  they 
are  untrue  philosophy  as  that  they  have  no 
answer  to  the  questions,  What  good  have  you 
done,  How  have  men  that  believe  in  your  system 
or  live  within  its  influence  been  made  better, 
What  have  you  contributed  to  bringing  in  the 
kingdom  of  righteousness  ? 


*  Bruce.     Apologetics,  350,     Also  passim. 


I06        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

The  religion  of  the  Incarnate  brings  men  into 
touch  with  a  God  of  reality,  a  God  whose  char- 
acter they  can  feel,  whose  power  they  can  make 
their  own.  The  Incarnate  Jesus  is  the  point  of 
contact  between  human  weakness  that  would 
fain  be  better,  and  divine  strength  that  is  eager 
to  impart  itself.  The  Incarnate  Jesus  strips 
earthly  terms  of  their  perishable  grossness,  gives 
man  a  Father  whose  fatherhood  is  seen  not  in 
the  mere  fact  of  begetting  but  in  the  unfailing 
love  and  protecting  care  that  has  come  to  be  the 
true  idea  of  fatherhood. 

In  the  Incarnation  we  find  the  apology  for 
anthropomorphic  language  used  in  Scripture 
and  in  all  religious  utterance  about  God.  If 
that  God  might  be  really  known  to  man  it  were 
necessary  that  God  take  man's  nature,  wear 
man's  clothes,  eat  man's  food  ;  then  is  it  equally 
fitting  and  necessary  that  God  be  spoken  of  in 
man's  language.  To  him  who  is  able  to  see  it, 
He  lifts  the  language,  is  not  degraded  by  it ; 
even  as  He  lifts  the  human  form  and  makes 
it  vehicle  for  the  divine  nature. 


IN  THE  INCARNATION  10/ 

Anthropomorphic  language  is  the  bugbear  of 
much  skeptical  criticism  of  the  Bible.  If  God  is 
to  be  spoken  about  or  written  about  at  all,  it 
must  be  in  language  of  men.  A  supernatural 
revelation  cannot  give  us  a  supernatural  termi- 
nology for  religious  use,  any  more  than  it  can 
give  us  an  angel  from  heaven  to  be  our  minister, 
or  bring  God  out  of  heaven  to  sit  at  our  table. 
If  it  were  possible  it  would  be  useless  :  *'  if  they 
hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will 
they  be  persuaded,  though  one  rose  from  the 
dead."  Nor  would  it  be  wise  :  "  If  God  wished 
to  make  us  a  gift  that  we  could  receive,  must 
He  not  have  suited  the  form  of  it  to  that  of  our 
mind  ? "  All  human  language  is  primarily 
material.  This  material  language  is  put  at 
once,  under  guidance  of  the  imagination,  at  the 
service  of  poetry  and  legend.  Through  these 
God  appears,  speaking  to  the  simple  human 
heart.  As  men  grow  wiser,  more  spiritually 
apprehensive,  they  love  poetry  and  legend  no 
less,  they  hear  the  voice  of  God  no  less  in  the 
simpler  forms  of  speech,  but  they  come  to  find 


I08       THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

the  reality  behind  the  figure,  to  discern  the 
spiritual  within  the  material,  to  be  conscious 
that  the  things  seen  and  heard  are  symbol  and 
sacrament,  for  the  uplifted  vision,  of  things 
unseen  and  echoing  on  forever.  ""  As  if  the 
divine  spirit,"  writes  Sabatier  in  one  of  his 
bursts  of  inspired  rhetoric,  **  in  order  to  be  intel- 
ligible to  the  simple  and  the  ignorant,  could  not 
as  well  avail  Himself  of  the  fictions  of  poetry  as 
of  logical  reasonings,  of  the  chants  of  the  angels 
at  Bethlehem  as  of  the  rabbinical  exegesis  and 
argumentations  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  .  .  . 
And  why  so  much  disdain  ?  Does  not  childhood 
run  on  into  maturity  and  old  age  ?  What  are 
our  most  abstract  ideas  but  primitive  metaphors 
which  have  been  worn  and  thinned  by  usage 
and  reflection  ?  "  *  The  invisible  God  must  be 
declared  to  man's  apprehension,  to  man's  love, 
to  man's  responsiveness  by  the  Incarnate  Son. 
Second :     The  reproduction  of  God's  life  in 


*  Sabatier.     Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Religion,  37, 


IN  THE  INCARNATION,  IO9 

ourselves  is  made  possible  only  by  the  Incarna- 
tion. 

Not  only  does  Jesus  bring  us  to  know  God, 
He  bids  us  be  like  God.  An  impressive  section 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  has  as  its  summary 
word.  "Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your 
Father  which  is  in   Heaven  is  perfect." 

The  imitableness  of  God  is  found  only  in 
Christ.  It  is  found  only  in  those  characteristics 
of  God  which  appeared  in  the  Incarnation.  To 
such  alone,  as  a  possible  "  perfection,"  are  men 
bidden  in  the  text.  We  may  not  aim  to  be 
omnipresent — it  would  be  not  so  much  an 
absurdity  as  blasphemous  presumption  ;  we  may 
aim  to  be  long-suffering.  When  we  look  at 
God  as  seen  in  Christ,  we  may  reverently  say 
men  are  not  so  much  unlike  God  save  as  a  fact. 
**  Made  in  the  divine  image  "  has  new  truth  and 
new  hope  for  us  when  we  see  that  image  in  His 
Son.  We  come  to  realize  the  truth  of  the  pres- 
ent-day philosophy  that  likeness  is  of  more 
import  than  difference  ;  that  God  in  His  good- 
ness has  much  in  common  with  man,  when  man 


no        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

is  represented  by  Jesus  Christ.  "Faith,"  says 
Professor  Nash,  ''  Faith  is  surrender  to  an  impas- 
sioned beHef  in  the  unity  of  God  and  Christ  and 
Man."     Christ  only  reveals  what  man  may  be. 

It  is  often  asked.  What  would  Christ  do  if  He 
came  to  America,  if  He  came  to  the  Twentieth 
Century  ?  The  inference  to  be  drawn  from  the 
question  is  what  I  ought  to  do  in  my  place  and 
my  century  as  a  Christ-man.  The  question  is 
asked  with  an  accent  of  condemnation  on  Chris- 
tian discipleship,  as  well  by  Socialists  who  have 
no  belief  in  the  God  of  Christianity,  as  by 
Tolstoi  who  has  a  very  esoteric  belief  in  Him. 

The  right  answer  to  this  question  involves 
the  subject  of  these  lectures,  the  relation  of  the 
temporary  to  the  permanent  in  the  Incarnation. 
Is  the  imitation  of  Christ  to  be  literal  or  is  it  to 
eliminate  temporary  accidents  ?  If  God's  Full- 
ness of  Time  had  come  in  our  day,  or  in  our 
America,  how  would  Christ  have  come?  Any 
honest  answer,  in  our  own  heart  or  in  audible 
speech,  performs  at  once  the  separating  process 
by  which  the  abiding  Christ  is  discovered  from 


IN  THE  INCARNA  TION  1 1 1 

the  man  of  his  age  and  people,  by  which  the 
Eternal  God  is  seen  revealed  in  His  unchanging 
attributes.  Yet  we  have  not  the  courage  or  the 
intelligence  to  speak  out  and  make  that  sepa- 
ration without  compulsion.  We  go  on,  in  our 
Interpretations  and  our  exhortations,  assuming 
that  a  peasant  Jew  of  the  first  century  is 
America's  revelation  of  God ;  and  that  the 
American  Christian  in  following  Him,  is  in 
someway  to  reproduce  that  exact  figure.  And 
when  we  fail,  as  of  course  we  do  fail,  we  despair- 
ingly pronounce  our  Christianity  to  be  at  fault. 
We  cannot  all  be  peasants,  carpenters,  orientals, 
be  unmarried  and  itinerant.  We  may  not  wear 
Christ's  turban  or  sandals  or  flowing  robe  : 
wearing  these,  we  may,  even  so,  fail  to  wear  the 
changeless  garment  of  His  character.  We  may 
put  on  His  clothes  and  not  put  on  His  mind. 
To  wear  His  raiment  and  to  talk  His  language, 
as  it  has  failed  to  retain  His  true  discipleship  in 
the  land  of  His  birth,  so  may  it  absorb  and 
satisfy  with  externals  those  who  in  far  off  lands 
and  distant  ages  can  only  recover  and  transmit 
Him  by  clothing  themselves  with    His  spirit. 


112       THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

Of  the  many  books  I  have  had  in  hand  in  the 
preparation  of  these  lectures,  none  has  been 
more  illuminating,  no  one  would  I  more  earn- 
estly commend  for  your  painstaking  study  and 
use,  than  Atonement  and  Personality  by  Canon 
Moberly.  His  argument  closely  reasoned  and 
widely  illustrated,  is,  in  a  word,  that  personality 
is  the  keynote  for  an  intelligent  understanding 
of  all  great  spiritual  experiences.  To  person- 
ality, in  God,  in  man,  in  Christ  who  brings  God 
and  man  into  relations  ;  to  personality,  with 
whose  vital  characteristics  we  are  intuitively 
familiar,  he  refers,  with  absolute  originality  and 
clearness,  the  fundamental  moral  facts  of  pun- 
ishment, penitence,  forgiveness,  mediation,  atone- 
ment. In  two  striking  pages  Moberly  turns  the 
light  of  his  truth  on  the  appeal  to  men  to  correct 
their  standard  by  the  standard  of  Christ,  and 
walk  always  and  only  in  His  steps.  "In  the 
first  place,"  he  writes,  "  there  are  a  vast  number 
of  situations  in  life,  which  constitute  the  most 
perplexing  of  practical  problems,  in  which  it  is 
not   compatible  with  a  reverend   conception    of 


IN  THE  INCARNA  TION  1 1 3 

His  Person,  to  conceive  of  Him  as  placed.  It 
was  wholly  incompatible  with  the  nature  of  the 
work  which  He  came  on  earth  to  do,  that  He 
should  have  been  within  the  scope  of  matrimo- 
nial responsibilities  or  anxieties,  or  should  have 
been  closely  identified  with  party  politics,  or 
should  have  initiated  a  great  commercial  enter- 
prise, or  should  have  been  a  successful  general, 
or  should  have  dominated  the  public  press.  All 
these  things  are  good  ;  and  a  score  of  others, 
of  which  these  are  but  samples,  are  also  good  ; 
but  it  Is  levity  of  mind,  not  religious  reverence, 
which  will  conceive  of  Him  as  directly  con- 
ditioned by  them.  He  is  indeed  a  standard  to  all 
these;  but  the  standard  cannot  be  applied  with 
any  rough  and  ready  directness  of  method.  And, 
in  the  second  place,  if  we  ask  ourselves  *  *  * 
what  His  apostles  and  saints  would  have  done  in 
conditions  which  are  not  so  hopelessly  incongru- 
ous to  them  ;  (which  is,  in  fact,  the  same  thing 
as  asking,  in  the  only  reverent  form,  what  it 
would  perfectly  beseem  the  Christ-spirit  to  do) 
we  have  still  to  beware  of  rough  and  ready  ans- 


I  14         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

wers.  *  *  *  We  are  not  helped,  but  hindered,  in 
our  search  for  what  is  right,  by  the  crude  attempt 
to  imitate,  across  all  gulfs  of  intervening  differ- 
ence, the  precise  things  which  He  did  *  *  *  He 
would  have  done  that  which  is  the  absolutely- 
wisest  and  best.  When  we  know  what  is  abso- 
lutely wisest  and  best,  we  shall  know  what  He 
would  have  done.  But  we  are  far  more  likely 
to  find  what  He  would  have  done,  by  learning 
dutifully  what  is  wisest  and  best ;  than  to  discover, 
by  a  short  cut,  what  is  wisest  and  best,  through 
asking  what  He  would  have  done,  and  presum- 
ing, in  all  the  crudeness  of  spiritual  indiscipline, 
to  give  off-hand,  perhaps  in  biblical  phraseology, 
a  wholly  unjust  and  superficial  answer."  *  In  no 
other  words,  that  I  have  met  or  could  frame,  is 
the  inherent  temporary  character  of  much  of  the 
revelation  of  the  Incarnation  so  strongly  put. 
They  summon  us,  from  the  pen  of  a  recognized 
master,  to  essay  the  task  and  privilege  of  rescu- 
ing and  commending  the  permanent. 

The  Human  Christ  is  the  Figure  of  the  Gos- 


*  Atonement  and  Personality.     R.  C.  Moberly.    308-9. 


IN  THE  INCARNA  TION  1 1 5 

pels.  We  may  approach  Christ  from  two  sides. 
The  old  approach  is  from  above  :  from  the  creeds  ; 
from  theology  ;  from  St.  Paul  struggling  with  lan- 
guage adequate  to  express  his  own  experience  ; 
from  St.  John  telling  the  ripened  conviction  of 
sixty  years  Intimacy  and  discipleship  ;  from  God's 
gift  out  from  His  own  bosom.  The  new  ap- 
proach Is  from  below  :  from  the  Gospel  of  going 
about  doing  good  ;  from  the  faltering  faith  of  men 
and  women  who  followed  where  they  could  not 
understand  ;  from  the  beauty  and  power  of  one 
Life  lived  on  the  earth  which  neither  distance, 
nor  inadequacy  of  portrayal,  nor  unworthiness  In 
following  can  ever  lose  from  the  world's  ad- 
miring gaze.  Both  approaches  bring  us  to  God. 
The  approach  by  the  way  of  Christ's  humanity 
makes  every  step  a  reality  and  a  progress,  and 
leaves  us  worshipping  In  the  presence  of  One 
whom  we  know  and  love  and  count  our  own. 
He  who  has  grace  to  discern  the  Lord  in  the 
humble  Jesus  of  Nazareth  has  found  God  in  his 
heart.  The  utmost  precision  on  the  doctrine  of 
God  Incarnate  may  leave  us  with  only  an  intel- 
lectual abstraction. 


Il6       THE   TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Do  not  misunderstand  me.  Here  is  no  denial 
that  the  Gospel,  the  New  Testament,  the  Savior, 
is  a  gift  from  above.  Our  apprehension  of  Him 
must  be  from  below.  We  must  draw  near  to 
Jesus  and  see  ;  the  more  we  look  the  more  won- 
derful He  appears,  the  more  we  realize  that 
what  we  see  does  not  exhaust  what  He  is  ;  that 
our  temporary  avenues  of  approach  are  high- 
ways leading  to  God  Himself.  To  dehumanize 
Jesus  is  to  forfeit  the  value  of  the  Incarnation. 
Seeing  Him  as  man,  learning  His  way  and  His 
nature  in  His  manhood,  He  stands  out  more 
clearly  and  truly  as  God.  The  Divinity  of  our 
Lord,  as  the  divinity  of  the  Scriptures,  comes 
out  more  radiant  when  approached  from  the 
human  side.  The  better  His  temporary  and 
earthly  features  are  known  the  more  are  they  felt 
unequal  to  explaining  Him,  the  more  is  He  seen 
to  transcend  the  temporary,  to  belong  to  man  for 
all  time  as  God's  eternal  revelation  of  Himself. 

In  the  next  lecture  we  listen  to  Christ's  word, 
The  Temporary  and  the  Permanent  in  Christ's 
Teaching. 


LECTURE  IV. 

the  temporary  and  the  permanent  in 
Christ's  teaching. 

I.  A  PROMINENT  factor  in  the  Incarnation  is 
Christ's  teaching. 

It  is  not  the  foremost  factor.  Christ  is  not 
primarily  a  Teacher.  His  Person  is  what  excep- 
tionally claims  our  attention.  What  He  is  must 
ultimately  explain  what  He  teaches.  There 
has  been  a  movement  in  Christian  discipleship 
in  the  past  century  to  rest  its  cause  on  the  say- 
ings of  Jesus.  To  reach  these  the  story  of  de- 
veloping Christian  life  and  Christian  thought  in 
Acts  and  Epistles  has  been  passed  by,  even  be- 
littled. Back  to  the  words  of  the  Master  is  a 
winning  watchword  to  a  faithful  disciple.  It 
may  miss  the  Master's  supreme  characteristic, 
His  Person.  Of  that  Person  disciples  and  apos- 
tles maybe  truer  witnesses  than  even   His  own 


Il8       THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE   PERMANENT 

words  which  have  come  down  to  us.  To  dis- 
parage the  writings  of  St.  Paul  in  the  interest  of 
the  Gospels  may  be  to  miss  the  Gospel's  unique 
revelation.  It  is  an  attractive  summons,  that  the 
Christian  confines  himself  to  the  study  of  the 
words  of  Christ ;  an  enlightened  Christianity 
recognizes  in  St.  Paul  a  familiarity  with  the 
Master's  fidl  figure  no  sayings  of  His  earthly 
ministry  can  disclose.  "  Christ's  supremacy  over 
His  followers  does  not  lie  in  the  fact  that  He 
uttered  deeper  truths  of  God  than  they,  but  that 
He  alone  manifested  in  His  own  person  the 
eternal  Sonship.  Paul  enters  into  no  absurd 
rivalry  with  Him  as  a  teacher.  Christ's  life  was 
more  than  His  teaching.  Paul's  teaching  was 
higher  than  his  life."  * 

Yet  the  world  comes  back  to  Christ's  teach- 
ing as  its  precious  inheritance.  It  treasures  and 
counts  over  every  word.  It  is  eager  at  the  possi- 
ble discovery,  in  some  long  hidden  manuscript, 
of  another  saying  of  Jesus.     It  addresses  itself. 


*  Forrest.    The  Christ  of  History  and  Experience,  332. 


IN  CHRIS  T  'S  TEA  CHING  1 1 9" 

both  its  scholarship  and  its  faith,  to  a  study  of 
that  saying,  its  authenticity,  its  meaning,  the 
Hght  it  sheds  on  His  other  sayings,  on  His  char- 
acter. The  study  of  any  one  saying,  old  or  new, 
is  not  simple.  Even  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
there  are  inevitable  difficulties,  requiring  a  dis- 
crimination of  values. 

We  have  seen,  in  the  last  lecture,  that  in  the 
Incarnation  there  must  of  necessity  be  tempo- 
rary features.  These  arise  from  the  human 
aspects  of  an  incarnation  ;  its  necessary  relation- 
ship to  race  and  family,  to  time  and  place,  to 
training  and  opportunity.  The  eternal  Christ  of 
the  world's  appropriation  must  emerge  from  the 
Christ  of  history. 

These  temporary  features  inhering  in  Christ's 
Incarnation  are  most  distinctively  true  of  His 
teaching,  of  his  spoken  life.  That  teaching  was 
in  a  given  language,  addressed  to  hearers,  employ- 
ing the  current  style,  using  familiar  figures,  adapt- 
ing Itself  to  Its  environment,  handed  on  by  the 
appropriating  receptivity  of  those  who  heard  Him. 
Jesus  was  not   merely,  as  Matthew  Arnold  says, 


I20       THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

"above  the  heads  of  His  reporters."  He  re- 
mains above  the  capacity  of  each  generation  to 
interpret  Him.  The  best  comprehension  of  one 
age  is  a  moral  offence  to  another.  The  words 
must  be  read  and  sifted  anew,  separated  not 
only  from  the  local  conditions  of  their  first  ut- 
terance, but  from  the  misconceiving  comments 
that  have  relocalized  them  in  the  generations 
since. 

There  are  sayings  of  Jesus  that  trouble  en- 
lightened Christian  apprehension,  not  so  much 
to  understand  or  even  to  apply  in  practice, 
as  to  reconcile  with  the  ideal  of  Himself  He 
has  formed  in  us,  becoming  our  Lord.  There 
are  words  of  His  that  do  not,  as  they  stand,  help 
our  Christian  discipleship,  words  we  wish  were 
not  there,  words  we  feel  constrained  to  explain 
away.  The  key  at  once  to  the  difficulty  and  its 
removal  is  found,  I  am  confident,  in  an  honest 
sifting  out  from  Christ's  teaching  of  inevitable 
temporary  elements. 

Yet  it  must  be  acknowledged  on  the  threshold 
that  Christ's  teaching  is  exceptionally  free  from 


•     IN  CHRIST'S  TEACHING  121 

temporary  characteristics.  If  we  can  ascertain 
Jesus'  mind,  that  is  truth  for  us  ;  to  ascertain 
His  mind,  we  must  translate  His  words. 

Three   stages    mark    Christ's   teaching :    the 
stage  of  apothegm,  condensed   and  popular  ut- 
terance of  truth,  as  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount ; 
the  stage  of  parable,  truth  pictured  in  a  story,  to 
be  found  by  searching  ;  the  stage  of  elaborated 
discourse,  a  sort  of  meditation  on   His  mission, 
found  for  the  most  part  in    St.  John's  Gospel, 
and  taking  color  from  John's  own  sixty   years' 
meditation  on  his  loved  Master.     In  each  of  these 
styles  are  temporary  features,  largely  belonging 
to  oriental  methods  of  speech.     Yet  for  that  very 
reason  in  part,   as    picturesquely  and    predomi- 
nantly ethical,  the  form  assumed  is  attractive  to 
hearers  of  every  age  and  clime. 

"-  One  of  the  prominent  characteristics  of 
Jesus'  words,"  says  Stalker,  '*  is  pregnancy.  No 
other  speaker  ever  put  so  much  into  few  words. 
Yet  the  matter  is  not  too  closely  packed ; 
all  is  simple,  limpid,  musical.  *  "^  *  It  is 
when  truth  has  been  long  and  thoroughly  pon- 


122       THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

dered  that  it  embodies  itself  in  brief  and  memora- 
ble language ;  *  *  *  and  such  intense  and 
convinced  thought  was  so  habitual  to  Jesus  that 
the  most  striking  sayings  were  often  coined  by 
Him  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  as  when  he 
said  in  controversy,  *  Render  unto  Caesar  the 
things  which  are  Caesar's,  and  unto  God  the 
things  which  are  God's'.  *  ^-s^  *  No  other 
words  have  adhered  as  those  of  Jesus  to  the 
memory  of  mankind.  Let  almost  any  of  His 
sayings  be  commenced,  and  the  ordinary  hearer 
can  without  difficulty  finish  the  sentence.  But, 
if  we  can  retain  them  so  easily  since  they  have 
been  written,  the  first  hearers  could  remember 
them  as  easily  before  they  were  written."  * 

Yet,  were  Jesus'  teaching  wholly  freed  from 
temporary  features  it  would  be  with  the  loss  of 
the  historic  Christ.  To  the  study  of  these  tem- 
porary characteristics  in  the  teachings  of  Christ, 
that  we  may  preserve  the  true  gold  of  His 
message  to  all  time,  we  give  ourselves  in  this 
lecture. 


Stalker.     The  Christology  of  Jesus,  38-39. 


IN  CHRIS  T '  S  TEA  CIIING  I  2  3 

Some  general  considerations  on  Christ's  teach- 
ing in  its  temporary  and  permanent  aspects 
must  first  engage  our  attention.  Then  we  will 
study  specific  sayings  of  Christ  to  see  how  they 
illustrate  these  considerations  and  give  us  the 
permanent  truth. 

II.  Some  general  considerations  on  Christ's 
Teaching  in  its  temporary  and  permanent  aspects. 

I.  Christ's  teaching  had  an  intelligible  mean- 
ing for  His  immediate  hearers. 

This  is  but  an  honest,  common-sense  thing  to 
say  about  the  words  of  a  true  man.  Mystical 
and  allegorical  interpretations  of  Old  Testament 
stories  and  New  Testament  conversations,  as 
the  only  interpretations  possible,  empty  the 
words  of  any  original  reality  or  seriousness. 

Jesus  spoke  to  be  understood.  He  was  say- 
ing something  to  listeners.  Else  His  talking 
was  unreal.  A  constant  temptation  appeals,  to 
what  we  think  is  reverence,  to  make  of  Jesus' 
life  and  teaching  a  mere  mystery.  That  is  to 
make  Him  untrue:  the  first  reverence  is  due  to 
truth.     Even  if  a  mystic  interpretation   of  such 


124         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Stories  as  those  of  Genesis  be  also  a  true  inter- 
pretation, there  was  something  primarily  true  to 
fact  in  those  stories  before  the  fact  could  become 
a  figure  of  the  invisible.  Some  good  meaning 
to  the  hearers  first  if  they  will  find  it.  Then  a 
meaning  transcending  their  capacity,  and  tran- 
scending ours,  to  whose  apprehension  the  words 
ever  invite  us.  So  the  prophets  summoning 
exiled  Israel  to  the  penitence  and  the  pain,  the 
promise  and  leadership  of  a  Return  ;  the  glories 
never  fully  realized  ;  but  in  their  approximation 
pointing  on  to  a  greater  Return,  unto  a  more 
abiding  Home,  shared  by  all  God's  children,  led 
by  a  King,  whose  grace  none  of  David's  line  could 
fill  till  God  Himself  took  on  Him  David's  heir- 
ship. 

Christ  spoke  first  for  His  first  hearers  to 
understand.  Hence,  there  were  temporary 
aspects  in  His  speech.  They  were  Orientals, 
were  Jews.  They  must  hear  with  Eastern  ears. 
They  must  apprehend  as  heirs  of  Israel's  nature 
and  promises.  And  he  must  speak  to  ears  so 
trained,  to  hearts  so  disciplined  and    so  preju- 


IN  CHRIST'S  TEACHING  125 

diced.  To  realize  what  He  aimed  to  say,  and 
what  it  meant  to  them,  we  must  put  ourselves 
into  His  place  and  theirs.  Put  yourself  in 
another's  place  is  the  act  unto  which  not  only 
our  moral  sympathy,  but  our  intellectual  appre- 
hension is  bidden  as  well. 

Of  course  there  was  much  they  misunder- 
stood, but  they  understood,  something.  ''  The 
popular  conception  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  was 
the  alloy  with  which  Jesus  had  to  mix  His 
teaching,  in  order  to  make  it  fit  to  mingle  with 
the  actual  life  of  the  world  of  His  day.  With- 
out it  His  thought  would  have  been  too  ethereal 
and  too  remote  from  the  living  hopes  of  men. 

*  *  *  As  the  goldsmith,  when  he  is  working 
with  finest  gold,  has  to  make   use  of  an   alloy. 

*  *  *  But,  when  the  form  is  complete,  he 
applies  an  acid,  which  evaporates  the  alloy  and 
leaves  nothing  but  the  pure  gold  of  the  perfect 
ring."  *  Influenced  by  contemporary  thought 
He  set  Himself  to  purify  it,  as  the  creeds  grew 


*  Stalker.     The  Christology  of  Jesus,     163. 


126        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

in  antagonism  to  current  error.  The  error  and 
ignorance  He  was  combating  must  be  grasped 
ere  the  truth  He  set  for  its  remedy  can  be 
appreciated. 

The  meaning  of  Christ's  words  as  spoken  to 
His  immediate  hearers,  and  understood  by 
them,  must  therefore  be  our  primary  study. 

I  very  much  doubt  if  the  bystanders  fell  into 
the  gross  misconception  of  Jesus' meaning  which 
marks  much  of  our  partisan  discipleship.  How- 
ever we  may  fault  their  dullness  and  hardness 
of  heart,  their  quick  appreciation  of  the  oriental 
style  would  never  have  made  spiritual  figures 
into  ceremonial  and  theological  facts  as  we  are 
constantly  doing,  or  have  exaggerated  color  and 
vividness  into  rules  of  right  behavior.  It  is 
more  than  a  question  between  the  literal  and  the 
figurative  ;  it  is  a  matter  of  the  atmosphere  in 
which  a  style  of  speech  draws  its  breath.  Our 
Christianity  must  learn  to  breathe  that  atmos- 
phere, native  air  to  them  who  heard  Him,  before 
we  can  make  His  truth  our  own.  However 
startled  and  set  to  murmuring  at  His  hard  say- 


IN  CHRIS  T '  S  TEA  CHING  1 2  / 

Ings,  those  who  heard  the  discourse  on  the 
Bread  of  Life  in  the  Synagogue  of  Capernaum 
could  hardly  have  fallen  into  the  sacramental 
materialism  which  has  marked  much  pious  dis- 
cipleship  as  it  quotes  proof  texts  from  the  Sixth 
Chapter  of  St.  John.  The  comiortable  words  of 
the  Communion  Office,  "  Come  unto  me  all  ye 
that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,"  meant  to  His 
eager  listeners  relief  from  the  traditional  burdens 
of  the  elders,  while  they  reveal  depths  of  com- 
fort found  in  Jesus  Christ  for  all  who  stagger 
and  wander  and  suffer. 

Starting  with  its  meaning  to  the  hearers, 
Christ's  teaching  keeps  on  without  limits  in  its 
application.  "  Its  timeless  and  placeless  note 
seems  only  the  more  accentuated  by  its  narrow 
medium.  *  ♦  *  i^  ha.s  the  marvelous  faculty 
of  being  at  home  everywhere,  intelligible  in 
every  speech,  comprehensible  to  every  mind, 
without  country  or  time,  because  so  akin  to 
universal  man.  And  it  is  more  than  curious 
that  the  teaching  of  which  this  can  be  said  is  so 
marked  by  the  actualities  of  the  hour  and  the 


128        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

place  of  its  birth."  *  These  words  of  Fairbairn, 
in  their  eloquent  tribute  to  the  universality  of 
Christ's  teaching,  recall  us  even  more  forcibly  to 
the  birthplace,  to  its  first  message  as  spoken 
unto  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel. 

There  follows  : 

2.  Christ  uses  the  language  of  accommoda- 
tion. 

Some  words  frighten  us.  If  we  call  the  Book 
of  Jonah  a  Work  of  Imagination  we  use  a  com- 
plimentary term ;  if  we  call  it  Fiction  in  the 
Bible  we  throw  suspicion  on  the  Book.  The 
expressions  have  the  same  meaning.  It  is  some- 
times wise  to  substitute  a  word  that  has  never 
been  discredited  ;  sometimes  better  to  hold  fast 
to  a  desirable  term  and  make  it  honorable. 
Language  of  Accommodation  is  a  way  of  speak- 
ing adapted  to  peoples'  way  of  thinking.  If  it 
confirms  danorerous  falsehood  accommodation  is 

o 

wrong.     If   it   conforms   to    current   beliefs   on 


*  Fairbairn.     The  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion, 
388-89. 


IN  CHRIS T' S  TEA  CHING  1 29 

incidental  and  unimportant  matters,  while  teach- 
ing truth  of  first  concern,  it  is  doing  what  is  wise, 
it  is  using  the  only  possible  means  for  enlighten- 
ing and  uplifting  men.  The  question  on  which 
its  propriety  hinges  is,  What  does  the  teaching 
aim  at,  to  which  all  other  purposes  are  subordi- 
nate ? 

Christ  must  use  the  language  of  accommoda- 
tion as  incarnate  in  the  flesh,  dealing  with 
human  nature  from  the  ground  of  human  nature 
as  well.  If  not  Himself  unaware  of  facts  no 
longer  His  concern  in  the  day  of  His  earthly 
life,  He  at  least  must  treat  men  as  iofnorant. 
He  must  not  obscure  the  teaching  He  came  into 
the  world  to  give  by  going  out  of  His  way  to 
teach  something  else.  In  so  doing.  He  awakens 
unnecessary  suspicion,  He  imperils  His  business 
of  teaching  men  the  knowledge  of  God  and  the 
way  of  right  living.  There  was  in  Him  no 
hypocritical  accommodation,  concealing  what 
He  knew  that  He  might  win  what  He  wished. 
He  shared  the  expectations,  was  limited  by  the 
conditions  of   His  time.     When    He  talked   of 


130         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

that  with  which  He  was  supremely  possessed, 
God's  way  and  will,  He  talked  to  men  as  a  man 
among  men.  His  limitations  did  not  imply,  as 
with  the  Scribes,  that  He  was  not  always  open 
to  fuller  truth.  "  These  current  and  traditional 
ideas,  which  came  to  Him,  not  from  heaven,  but 
from  His  race  and  environment" — and  in  whose 
forms  He  embodied  His  divine  teaching,  as  He 
Himself  was  in  the  form  of  a  servant — "never 
succeeded  in  corrupting  the  inimitable  purity  of 
His  inner  piety  or  in  falsifying  the  divine 
inspirations  of  His  heart."  * 

As  we  read  the  Gospels  we  hear  Christ 
actually  using  the  language  of  accommodation  : 
in  His  teaching  of  truth  eternal  attaching  His 
language  to  current  conceptions  about  things 
temporal. 

Take  the  subject  with  which  the  Gospel 
stories  abound,  possession  by  demons.  The 
theory  that  seems  to  deal  in  the  most  satisfac- 
tory way  with  all  the  facts  of  the  Gospel  narra- 


*  Sabatier,    Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Religion,  193. 


IN-  CHRIS  T '  6"  TEA  CUING  1 3 1 

tlves,  the  symptoms  of  the  sufferers  and  the 
personifying  of  the  demons,  put  side  by  side 
with  modern  medical  knowledge  and  modern 
confessed  ignorance,  is  that  Christ  adopted  con- 
ceptions and  used  language  generally  current  in 
speaking  of  lunatics.  The  assumption  is  not 
without  difficulty,  but  at  any  rate,  let  us  concede 
that  it  is  no  impeachment  of  the  Master's  moral 
and  intellectual  honesty.  You  may  prefer  to 
hold  that  certain  epileptics  and  deaf  mutes  were 
inhabited  by  demons,  while  others  were  only 
victims  of  disease  ;  that  the  powers  of  evil  were 
specially  arrayed  in  Jesus'  time  against  His 
supreme  manifestation  of  good ;  or,  with  Bush- 
nell,  that  possession  holds  over  to  our  time, 
though  we  have  not  the  insight  to  discern  the 
spirits.  You  may  confess  that  like  mysteries  of 
hypnotic  suggestion  and  duplex  personality  and 
sensual  slavery — the  drunkard  and  libertine — 
confront  our  ignorance  to-day.  Yet  it  was  not 
with  these  medical  and  psychological  questions 
Jesus  was  dealing  when  He  lifted  heavy  bur- 
dens from  men's  spirits,  and  bade  the  bystanders 
behold  the  power  of  God. 


132       THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

A  like  accommodation  to  current  beliefs  is 
seen  in  Christ's  attitude  toward  critical  ques- 
tions of  the  Old  Testament.  Did  David  write 
Psalm  no  because  Jesus  ascribes  it  to  Him? 
We  no  longer  feel  bound,  in  loyalty  to  Him, 
to  affirm  it,  when  scholars  like  Gore  in  England 
and  Peters  at  home  see  no  connection  between 
Jesus'  incidental  statement  and  the  critical  fact. 
The  exact  authorship  of  any  Psalm  is  only  to  be 
known  by  critical  study.  Jesus'  argument  was 
in  no  way  affected  by  exactness  in  that  respect. 
He  speaks  of  the  Psalm  as  the  people  of  His 
day  were  wont  to  speak  of  it.  To  have  done 
anything  else  would  have  aroused  unnecessary 
hostility,  would  be  claiming  to  be  wise  beyond 
what  He  knew. 

Again,  Christ  naturally  falls  into  the  argu- 
mentum  ad  hominem.  He  meets  His  listeners 
on  grounds  familiar  to  them,  and  shows  them 
therein  their  error  and  the  power  of  truth. 
Confronting  the  Sadducees  in  their  denial  of 
the  resurrection  He  appeals  to  the  Pentateuch, 
the  portion  of  the  Old  Testament  on  which  the 


IN  CHRIS  T  'S  TEA  CHING  1 3  3 

Sadducees  most  relied.  His  presentation  of 
God  as  the  God  of  Abraham  and  of  Isaac  and 
of  Jacob,  and  therefore  Abraham,  Isaac  and 
Jacob  Hve  on,  is  an  argumentative  use  of  the 
Old  Testament  which  our  timidity  would  have 
never  dared  to  make  nor  our  blindness  been 
able  to  see.  The  argument  does  not  rest  on 
the  present  tense  :  I  am  their  God,  therefore  the 
patriarchs  are  still  living.  Christ  is  bolder,  with 
a  diviner  insight.  In  proclaiming  Himself  the 
God  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  God  affirms 
Himself  to  be  in  relation  with  these  men.  Men 
with  w^hom  God  is  in  relation  are  blessed  and 
not  wretched,  are  righteous  and  not  wicked,  are 
living  and  not  dead.  "  God  is  not  the  God  of 
the  dead  but  of  the  living,  for  all  live  unto 
Him."  "  And  this  is  life  eternal  to  know  Thee." 
Christ's  loo^ic  starts  with  accommodation  to  the 
level  of  the  humblest  and  issues  in  truth  beyond 
the  level  of  the  wisest,  to  be  apprehended  only 
by  spiritual  intuition. 

It  follows  once  more,  and  in  the  line  on  which 
emphasis  has  already  been  laid. 


134       THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

3.  Christ  is  an  Oriental  speaking  to  Orien- 
tals. 

Christ  teaches  by  figures.  Where  our  stricter 
apprehension  sees  only  the  most  literal,  even 
there  a  figure  lurks.  "  He  spoke  in  pictures, 
not  in  syllogisms." 

Speaking  in  figures  belongs  to  the  atmosphere 
of  the  East.  The  East  seems  itself  a  figure  :  its 
heat  and  haze ;  its  camels  and  caravans ;  its 
leisure  and  dreams ;  its  tents  and  palaces  ;  its 
philosophers  and  beggers.  They  are  facts,  I 
suppose,  but  facts  which  dreams  are  made  of. 
They  are  so  far  off  as  to  be  no  part  of  our 
reality.  They  are  so  far  off  as  to  become  the 
story  tales  of  our  childhood  and  the  philosophies 
of  our  old  age.  Yet  out  of  the  East  has  come 
our  religion.  An  Oriental  is  our  Lord.  While 
we  can  never  be  over  eager  in  claiming  Him  as 
Lord  of  universal  humanity,  and  count  it  an 
added  tribute  to  His  divine  sonship  that  His 
person  and  message  can  be  limited  to  no  race  or 
age,  vet  we  must  remember  that  He  Himself 
came    out    of    the    East  to    be  the  Lord  of  all 


IN  CHRIS  T '  S  TEA  CHING  135 

worlds.  His  Eastern  clothes  and  Eastern  speech 
are  indeed  temporary  features  in  the  Universal 
Son  of  Man,  features  to  be  translated  and 
allowed  for,  yet  features  that  give  color  to  the 
divine  picture  for  men's  admiration  everywhere 
and  always. 

Christ's  teaching  by  figures  sets  a  seal  on  the 
divineness  of  imagination.  "Jesus  never  says, 
You  ought  to  exert  a  good  influence  on  your 
fellow-creatures,  but,  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the 
earth,  ye  are  the  light  of  the  world ;  never. 
All  events  are  ordered  by  Providence,  but. 
Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  farthing? 
yet  one  of  them  shall  not  fall  to  the  ground 
without  your  Father."  *  Without  imagination, 
power  to  picture  and  so  create,  man  would  be 
without  love  and  without  hope,  without  creed 
and  without  worship,  without  home  and  without 
character. 

An  Oriental  temper  inheres,  more  or  less,  in 
all  mankind.  The  Oriental  can  seem  to  get  on 
without  the  West    though  it  be  to  the  loss  of 

*^Stalker,  The  Christology  of  Jesus,  39. 


136         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

vigor  and  efficiency.  But  the  West  can  never 
live  wholly  on  its  own  products.  The  value  of 
the  East  is  not  to  be  exaggerated  to  discrediting 
western  reason  and  practical  sense.  Yet  to  the 
East,  of  tropical  suns  and  forests  of  palm  and 
orchid,  of  repose  and  contemplation,  we  come 
not  alone  for  spices  and  jewels  and  rare  woods  ; 
not  alone  for  birds  of  beauty  and  beasts  of 
might ;  not  alone  for  kings,  conquerors,  palaces; 
we  come  for  great  truths  and  men  to  listen  to 
them,  and  men  to  speak  and  live  them,  and  for 
Him  who  spoke  as  never  man  spoke  and  lived 
the  life  that  is  the  light  of  men.  Jesus  came 
from  Asia,  and  we  carry  Him  back  to  Asia 
again,  their  Savior  and  ours.  And  the  wisdom 
of  the  East  is  found  more  akin  to  the  work  of 
the  East  because  one  Man  is  Lord  of  both  West 
and  East. 

The  parable,  the  Oriental  mode  of  teaching 
which  Christ  specially  chose,  is  figure  not  alone 
for  its  specific  truth,  but  figure  of  truth's  appeal 
to  universal  characteristics  and  possibilities  in 
man's  nature.     The  parable  first  arouses  inter- 


IN  CHRIST'S  TEACHING  137 

est,  then  stimulates  curiosity.  Man  may  stop 
there,  amused  but  uninstructed,  a  looker-on  but 
not  a  sharer.  The  parable,  its  graphic  picture 
the  delight  of  the  Eastern  hearers,  leaves  some- 
thing for  that  hearer  to  do  that  he  may  make 
its  truth  his  own.  The  parable  both  conceals 
and  reveals  truth.  From  them  that  have  not  it 
takes  away  even  that  which  they  have ;  that  see- 
ing they  shall  see  and  not  perceive,  and  hearing 
they  shall  hear  and  not  understand.  The  mes- 
sage of  Christ's  Oriental  parables  it  has  in  large 
measure  been  left  to  the  Western  world  to 
appropriate.  The  permanent  message  of  the 
Gospel  of  the  Man  of  the  East  has  been  dis- 
covered and  made  their  own  by  men  of  the  West. 

Once  more : 

4.  Christ's  Teaching  is  Principles  and  not 
Rules. 

This  is  its  most  distinctive  characteristic,  one 
that  must  be  grasped  If  the  Christian  message  is 
to  be  found.  Failing  to  find  the  principle  that 
lies  back  of  every  particular  teaching,  we  may 
not    only    miss    the    teaching  itself,  but  gather 


138         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

from  the  concrete  example  the  very  opposite  of 
its  intended  lesson.  In  all  the  aspects  of  His 
teaching :  as  an  intelligible  message  to  the 
immediate  hearer  ;  as  accommodation  along 
lines  of  secondary  ignorance,  that  He  may  lead 
men  to  primary  truth  ;  in  resort  to  pictures  and 
appeal  to  imagination,  as  peculiarly  dear  to  men 
of  the  East  and  agreeable  to  human  nature 
everywhere,  Christ's  supreme  aim  is  to  impress 
principles.  Their  application  is  to  be  the  duty 
and  privilege  of  Christian  discipleship  when  the 
principle  has  been  mastered.  Again  and  again 
Christ  enunciates  the  principle  afresh,  refusing 
to  relieve  his  hearers  of  the  responsibility  of 
applying  it  for  themselves.  This  He  does  that 
He  may  not  lend  Himself  to  legalism.  Moses 
gave  a  law,  Confucius  gave  a  law,  Ethical  Cul- 
ture gives  a  law,  all  school-master  systems  give 
a  law  ;  the  Master  summons  men  to  discipleship, 
sets  forth  the  principles  on  which  discipleship  to 
Christ  must  be  based,  leaves  men  in  every  age, 
of  every  race,  with  every  individual  need  and 
condition,  to  measure  for  themselves  their  per- 
sonal conformity  to  that  standard. 


IN  CHRIST'S  TEACHING  139 

This  it  is  that  makes  Christ's  teaching  the 
world's  lesson  book.  This  it  is  which  most  of 
all  requires  the  separation  of  its  temporary  ex- 
pression that  its  permanent  nature  may  be  dis- 
covered. The  chief  duty  of  the  student  of 
Christ's  words  is  to  find  the  great  principles 
His  words  are  intended  to  establish.  In  these 
principles,  not  many  in  number  but  unique  and 
radical,  is  Christianity's  secret.  They  are  illus- 
trated afresh,  and  their  truth  reaffirmed  in  new 
light,  as  in  His  ministry  He  faces  men's  varied 
difficulties  and  sins  and  needs.  But  they  are 
never  put  as  abstract  statements  :  they  must  be 
discovered,  and  formulated  if  you  will,  from  their 
appearance  and  reappearance  in  His  ministering 
life. 

The  Bishop  of  Ripon  in  his  recent  William 
Selden  Noble  lectures  at  Harvard  emphasizes  in 
brilliant  fashion  this  characteristic  of  Jesus' 
teaching.  Ascertain  by  study  and  discipleship 
the  principles  which  underly  true  Christian 
action,  and  every  counsel  of  the  Master  shines 
in  new  light.      ''He  that  receiveth  a  prophet  in 


140        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

the  name  of  a  prophet  shall  receive  a  prophet's 
reward  " — that  is  no  mere  counsel  of  hospitality 
and  promise  of  return  ;  many  of  us  may  never 
have  the  chance  to  receive  a  prophet  or  be  equal  to 
enjoying  his  happiness  ;  but  the  cause  Is  one,  all 
who  have  it  on  their  heart,  all  who  sympathize 
with  any  good  work,  the  humblest  and  the  high- 
est, are  partakers  of  a  like  gladness  ;  they  stand 
together  in  the  ranks  of  Christ's  servants,  the 
giver  of  the  cup  of  cold  water  in  Christ's  name, 
and  St.  Paul  winning  city  after  city  to  Christ's 
discipleship. 

The  grip  of  law  as  the  one  condition  of  any 
discipleship  is  powerful,  despite  the  Master's  dis- 
owning of  its  value  and  refusal  to  apply  it.  Law 
served  its  temporary  place  as  a  method  for  bond 
servants.  Principles  belong  to  the  permanent 
system  as  a  method  for  sons.  It  is  easier  to  be 
servants  and  keep  rules,  than  to  be  sons  and 
make  free  decision.  In  Christ's  household  there 
can  be  sons  alone.  A  son's  business  is  to 
acquaint  himself  with  the  family  order,  to  bring 
his  heart  Into  harmony  with  the  family  temper, 


IN  CHRIS  T '  S  TEA  CHING  1 4 1 

and  then  apply  what  he  has  learned  to  the  de- 
tails of  his  own  action.  Christ  sternly  refuses  to 
interfere  between  two  brothers  in  a  dispute  over 
an  Inheritance,  but  **  proceeds  to  translate  the 
question  of  inheritance  into  a  question  of  the 
spiritual  life,"  thus  giving  a  principle  by  which 
true  Christians  could  themselves  adjudicate  all 
such  disputes.  *' A  man's  life  conslsteth  not  in 
the  abundance  of  the  things  which  he  possess- 
eth." 

The  failure  Is  again  and  again  made  in  the 
history  of  Christian  living,  to  grasp  Christianity 
as  principle  ;  discipleship  to  Christ  is  once  more 
advocated  as  devotion  to  law.  Noble  as  charac- 
ters like  St.  Francis  and  Count  Tolstoi  must  be 
confessed  to  be.  Incapable  as  we  must  freely 
acknowledge  ourselves  to  be  of  measuring  up  to 
their  standard  of  consecration,  I  cannot  but  feel 
that  their  literalism  in  interpreting  Christ's 
teachings,  their  ordering  of  their  lives  after  an 
external  conformity  to  what  they  hold  to  be 
details  of  law,  misses  His  method  altogether. 
Such  an  Interpretation  of  discipleship  translates 


142         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

itself  into  beauty  in  simple  and  devoted  lives  like 
theirs.  It  does  not,  however,  give  God's  per- 
manent message  for  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men.  With  other  natures,  and  under  different 
conditions,  a  like  reading  of  Christ's  message  as 
law  loses  its  power  as  gospel.  As  we  saw  in  our 
study  on  the  imitation  of  the  Incarnate  Christ, 
we  cannot  reverently  put  Him  into  our  place,  or 
ourselves  into  His  place,  in  every  particular. 
We  might  succeed  in  reproducing  his  clothing  in 
which  externals  quite  a  different  spirit  from  His 
would  masquerade.  "He  that  hath  no  sword, 
let  him  sell  his  garment  and  buy  one  *  *  * 
And  they  said,  Lord,  behold  here  are  two 
swords."  Swords  are  wanted  now,  actual  steel 
swords,  is  the  conclusion  of  the  listening  and 
loyal  disciples.  In  His  answer  we  see  both  their 
want  of  insight  and  the  candor  of  the  Evange- 
lists' record.  "And  Jesus  said  unto  them,  It  is 
enough."  Two  swords  are  enough,  does  our 
literalism  still  interpet  ?  Oh,  no  !  The  tone  is 
that  of  sadness.  "  You  mistake  me  grievously. 
You    have    not  caught  the    truth  which  swords 


IN  CHRIS T ' S  TEA  CHING  1 43 

served  only  to  Illustrate.  No  swords  whatever 
are  wanted,  but  courage  and  patience  and  trust 
to  face  the  evils  sure  to  come.  It  is  enough. 
Let  the  subject  drop.  You  will  learn  some  time 
to  know  my  spirit  rather  than  to  catch  up  my 
words."  Till  that  spirit  Is  learned  Christ's 
Gospel  has  not  become  the  world's  permanent 
possession. 

III.  These  general  considerations  find  detailed 
application  in  every  page  of  the  Gospel.  The 
permanent  is  to  be  deduced  from  the  temporary 
in  Christ's  teaching,  as  we  separate  its  larger 
meaning  from  that  borne  by  the  words  to  the 
consciences  of  those  who  first  heard  them  ;  as, 
In  our  fuller  knowledge  of  history  and  science, 
we  make  allowance  for  the  language  of  accom- 
modation, and  grasp  His  eternal  spiritual  mean- 
ing under  temporary  disabilities  ;  as  we  admire 
the  natural  picturesqueness  of  His  style,  yet  find 
Its  practical  prose  for  our  less  responsive  imagin- 
ation ;  as  we  search  for  the  abiding  principles  of 
Christian  disclpleship  behind  their  passing  ex- 
pression as  Jesus  set  them  forth  to    His  cotem- 


144       THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

porarles.  The  task  Is  a  difficult  one.  It  is  a 
necessary  and  a  worthy  study  just  so  far  as 
Christianity  Is  God's  message  to  every  people 
and  time.  It  Is  the  business  to  which  all  Chris- 
tians are  bidden  as  they  are  put  In  trust  of  that 
message,  given  in  a  time  and  a  tongue,  to  make 
it  a  message  of  vital  use  for  all  times  and  ton- 
gues. 

We  find  ourselves  asklngf,  What  Is  left,  What 
is  permanent,  What  Is  the  abiding  meaning  of 
Christ's  words  ?  We  cannot  give  a  list  of  the 
permanent  things  in  the  New  Testament,  leav- 
ing the  temporary  out.  We  cannot  take  every 
saying  of  Jesus  and  indicate  what,  in  Its  words, 
its  style,  its  conditions,  is  to  be  regarded  as 
transitory.  To  do  this  would  surpass  the  limits 
of  a  course  of  lectures  and  a  lecturer's  ability. 
It  would  also  contradict  the  idea  we  have  reached 
as  characteristic  of  the  Gospel,  since  it  would  be 
giving  results  for  men  to  accept  instead  of  illus- 
trating processes  tliey  are  bound  themselves 
freely  to  apply.  From  a  few  and  varied  exam- 
ples learn  a  method  for  all.     We  will  take  up  a 


IN  CHRIST'S  TEACHING  145 

few  texts  or  classes  of  texts  which  Illustrate  the 
general  considerations  we  have  maintained. 

I.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  contains  some 
very  characteristic  sayings  of  Christ :  ''  Who- 
soever shall  smite  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn 
to  him  the  other  also*  *  *  Whosoever  shall  take 
away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloke  also.  *  *  * 
Whosoever  shall  compel  thee  to  go  a  mile,  go  with 
him  twain  *  *  *  give  to  him  that  asketh  thee." 
In  form  these  sayings  are  apothegms.  In  style 
they  are  concrete,  picturesque,  vivid,  not  with- 
out the  figure  of  hyperbole.  In  method  they 
embody,  in  language  suited  to  the  time,  with 
cases  familiar  to  the  hearer,  abiding  Christian 
principles.  These  principles  are  to  be  ascer- 
tained, not  alone  by  a  study  of  their  application 
found  in  the  concrete  cases  named,  but  by  a  dis- 
crimination of  the  abiding  principle  from  the 
case  which  temporarily  illustrates  it.  The 
Christian  lesson  is  never  to  be  learned  by  a 
slavish  and  unintelligent  performance  of  Just 
those  very  acts.  It  is  doubtful  whether  even 
Jesus'   immediate    disciples,    however   primitive 


14^       THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

and  neighborly  and  Arabic  were  the  relations  of 
common  people  in  the  Holy  Land,  could  wisely 
have  done  these  exact  things  in  realizing  their 
Master's  teaching :  the  language  seems  pur- 
posely exaggerated  to  drive  the  truth  home.  It 
is  certain  that  to  do  those  precise  things  now,  to 
turn  the  left  cheek  when  the  right  is  smitten,  to 
give  without  question,  would  be  to  prove  false 
to  the  Christian  virtues  these  illustrations  aim 
to  picture.  We  are  to  find  therein  the  hitherto 
unknown  but  divine  lessons  :  That  Christians 
cherish  no  malice,  be  not  contentious,  enter 
into  their  brother's  needs  and  give  themselves 
out  in  his  behalf.  Then  let  us  practise  these 
virtues,  in  the  light  of  God's  spirit  shed  on  to- 
day's conditions. 

Many  Christian  people  have  felt  that  charity 
organization  was  open  to  the  accusation  that  it 
substituted  institutional  aid  for  personal  brother- 
liness  and  so  missed  the  Christian  spirit.  Un- 
questionably, in  practice  associated  charities  have 
been  open  to  this  charge.  Yet,  its  most  earnest 
advocates  are  devout  Christian  disciples.     They 


IN  CHRIST'S  TEACHING  147 

find  In  its  principles  no  contradiction  to  the 
teachings  of  Christ,  but  rather  the  intelHgent 
appHcation  of  those  teachings  to  the  conditions 
of  modern  Hfe.  They  find  In  its  personal  in- 
vestigations when  conducted  in  a  Christian 
spirit,  In  Its  gift  of  friendship  rather  than  alms, 
in  its  discrimination  between  the  deserving  and 
the  underserving,  in  its  unwillingness  to  pauper- 
ize or  duplicate,  just  the  Master's  temper.  He 
showed  It  in  a  different  way,  He  portrayed  it 
in  other  language.  That  was  only  because  He 
was  Himself  a  poor  man,  was  associated  almost 
wholly  with  the  poor,  kept  apart  from  organized 
activity — yet,  He  gave  the  notes  on  which  all 
organization  must  proceed.  The  utmost  that 
can  be  said  against  the  Chrlstlikeness  of  organ- 
ized charity  is  that  in  our  complex  civilization, 
where  each  man  Is  absorbed  by  his  specialty,  In 
place  of  his  own  friendly  visitation  he  sends  a 
wise  and  good  representative.  Jesus  did  that 
when  He  sent  the  disciples  out  two  by  two. 
He  does  that  as  Lord  of  all  men  when  He 
pronounces,  Inasmuch  as  ye   have   done  It  unto 


148       THE    TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have 
done  It  unto  me.  Such  modern  writers  on  Char- 
ity as  Francis  Greenwood  Peabody,  "Jesus 
Christ  and  the  Social  Question,"  are  getting  at 
the  heart  of  Jesus'  teaching,  and  are  finding  in 
Him  principles  applicable  to  business  and  society 
as  well  as  to  almsgiving,  principles  whose  large 
application  find  their  birth  in  those  simpler 
human  relationships  with  which  alone  His  life  on 
earth  was  concerned.* 

Jesus'  teaching  on  Riches,  such  words  as 
"  Woe  unto  you  that  are  rich,"  "  How  hardly 
shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  God  "  seem  on  the  surface  to  lend  them- 
selves to  socialism.  His  own  life  was  lived  In 
very  humble  surroundings.  The  rich,  as  He 
knew  them,  were  rich  from  extortion.  He  saw 
the  peril  of  riches  in  a  corrupt  government  and 
a  decadent  civilization.  Against  that  peril  He 
spoke  with  fearless  and  unmeasured  words.  So 
of  like  riches  would  He  speak  to-day.     Yet,  it 


Peabody.     Jesus    Christ    and    the    Social    Question. 
Chap.  V. 


IN  CHRIST'S  TEACHING  1 49 

is  poverty  of  spirit  that  he  commends  as  the 
ideal  temper  of  those  poor  in  worldly  goods. 
Where  He  in  His  earthly  ministry  finds  humility 
and  serviceableness  associated  with  worldly  pros- 
perity, as  with  the  family  at  Bethany  and  the 
counselor  Joseph  of  Arimathaea,  He  welcomed 
their  character  and  their  wealth  alike.  Jesus 
did  not  array  the  rich  and  the  poor  against  each 
other.  To  both  He  proclaimed  the  principles 
of  stewardship  for  what  they  had,  the  danger 
lest  their  attitude  toward  material  thines,  com- 
placency  in  their  wealth,  bitterness  because  of 
their  poverty,  should  lose  out  of  their  life  spirit- 
ual riches.  * 

2.  At  the  other  end  of  Christ's  short  earthly 
ministry  we  have  the  so-called  Great  Forty 
Days. 

To  the  teaching  of  that  period  has  been 
assigned,  In  the  opinion  of  many  Churchmen, 
detailed  instruction  on  the  organization  of  the 
Church.   Such  Instruction   Is  assumed  as  proper 


*  Peabody.     Jesus    Christ    and    the   Social   Question, 
Chap.  IV. 


150      THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE   PERMANENT 

to  be  given  rather  than  found  expressed  and 
recorded.  It  is  a  deduction  from  the  one  phrase, 
found  in  the  Book  of  Acts,  "  appearing  unto  them 
by  the  space  of  forty  days,  and  speaking  the 
things  concerning  the  Kingdom  of  God." 

Two  radically  different  suppositions  confront 
each  other  on  Christ's  method  with  His  Church, 
as  we  face  the  supposed  teaching  of  these  forty 
days.      The  one  theory  maintains   that    Christ 
not  only  founded  and  started   His  Church,  but 
that  He  outlined  and  filled  in  all  essential  details 
of  its  organization.     The  other  sees  the  Master 
Himself   guided   by    God's  Spirit,  and    leaving 
His  Apostles  with  the  promise  of  the  same  guid- 
ance to  develop  the  Church  to  meet  the  needs 
of  men.     The  one  conception   finds   the  three- 
fold ministry  and  the  two  necessary  sacraments 
already  in  being  in  the  three  years  when  Christ 
was  the  visible   Head  of  His  Church,  the   Holy 
Communion  being    in  a  fashion  anticipated  by 
teaching    and    practice.      The    other    finds    the 
diaconate  coming  into  being  from  the  needs  of 
the  poor,  the   presbyterate  from   the   establish- 


IN  CHRIST'S  TEACHING  I  5  I 

ment  of  local  churches,  the  episcopate  as  the 
Apostles  are  called  from  earth  ;  the  Holy  Com- 
munion gradually  separated  from  the  love  feast, 
taken  from  the  home  meal  to  the  Church  ordi- 
nance, and  surrounded  by  ceremonial  ensuring  its 
reverent  perpetuation.  If  the  one  idea  lays 
emphasis  on  Christ's  minute  care  for  His  Church 
and  so  exalts  its  divine  origin,  the  other  asserts 
the  continued  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
Christ's  witness  and  representative,  and  so 
magnifies  the  abiding  divine  oversight. 

The  two  conceptions  are  practically  a  setting 
of  temporary  over  against  permanent  interpreta- 
tions of  God's  way  and  word  in  the  teaching  of 
His  Son.  One  passage,  at  the  very  best  two,  in 
the  Gospel,  where  Christ  speaks  of  His  Church. 
One,  albeit  most  solemn  and  thrice  reported, 
record  of  the  Sacrament  of  His  Body  and 
Blood,  with  perhaps  an  anticipatory  discourse. 
Are  these  sayings  the  measure  of  the  permanent 
value  of  the  Church  and  the  Sacraments  in  the 
mind  of  Christ  for  His  people?  We  may  not, 
with  the  ecclesiastic,   import  into  Christ's   mind 


152       THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

that  of  which  there  is  no  evidence,  and  give  to 
Church  and  Sacrament  a  supreme  importance, 
transcending  personal  devotion  and  righteous  Hv- 
ing,  for  which  the  Gospel  story  furnishes  no  war- 
rant. Nor  may  we,  on  the  other  hand,  deny  to 
the  church  of  Peter  and  Paul,  to  the  church  of 
the  fathers,  to  the  mother  church  of  England, 
and  the  free  church  of  America,  the  right  to 
determine  under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  where 
emphasis  shall  be  laid  and  expansion  given  to  that 
of  which  Christ  spoke  only  the  germinal  thought ; 
what,  in  His  plan  and  after  His  method,  belongs 
supremely  to  Christianity's  permanent  deposit, 
to  be  adapted  in  its  details  to  the  needs  of  the 
generations  as  they  come. 

Indeed,  the  generations  may  lay  a  new 
emphasis  where  it  has  not  been  laid  before,  or 
take  off  one  that  has  already  served  its  purpose. 
The  Church  ''  must  quit  one  point  of  view  and 
move  on  to  another.  This  is  because  its  own 
historical  position  is  shifting.  While  Scripture  is 
meant  to  explain  all  the  changing  aspects  of  provi- 
dence, providence,  on  the  other  hand,   likewise 


IN  CHRIS  T '  S  TEA  CHING  153 

casts  on  Scripture  an  ever-changing  light.  The 
organizing  thought  of  theology,  If  the  Church  Is 
progressing  instead  of  stagnating,  will  not  be  one 
truth  or  another  forever.  In  our  day  the  best 
ruling  Idea  may  possibly  be  the  Kingdom  of 
God  or  the  Fatherhood  of  God  ;  but,  if  so,  It  will 
be,  not  because  this  was  the  supreme  conception 
of  Jesus,  but  because  It  is  the  thought  which 
corresponds  most  intimately  to  the  knowledge 
and  the  temper  of  the  age."  *  The  teaching  of 
Jesus  was  In  fact  by  no  means  formal.  It  was 
fragmentary,  and  "  Its  fragmentary  character  was 
not  an  accident  ;  it  was  the  result  of  a  reaction 
against  the  tone  and  methods  of  existing 
teachers,  and  was  involved  in  a  deliberate 
attempt  to  come  In  contact  with  the  humblest 
and  most  ordinary  Intelligence."  f  The  Gospel 
was  really  Jesus  Dealing  with  Men,  We 
must  stand  with  those  men,  put  ourselves, 
as   we  may   be  helped   to  do,  into  Jesus'  own 


*  Stalker.     The  Christology  of  Jesus,  28-29. 
\  Contentio  Veritatis.      112, 


154      THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT. 

mind,  if  we  would  become  possessed  of  the  per- 
manent treasures  of  His  Gospel.  Further  read- 
justments of  Christian  truth  and  Church  rela- 
tionships are  ahead  of  us,  as  the  permanent 
message  claims  its  own.  New  emphasis  will  be 
laid  where  He  intended  the  ages  to  come  to  lay 
them.  Old  contentions,  founded  on  His  words 
but  not  on  His  purpose,  will  disappear  as  He 
wishes  them  to  disappear.  The  touchstone  on 
How  to  live.  How  to  serve.  How  to  think. 
Christlike,  will  be  the  unfolding  of  the  perma- 
nent in  the  teaching  of  Christ.  We  have  touched 
His  teaching  heretofore  too  much  on  its  external 
side.  That  is  because  dealing  with  the  external 
is  easy  for  us.  It  is  not  Christ's  way.  He  uses 
externals  as  entrances  into  the  inner  where  the 
Spirit  waits  to  teach.  For  the  Spirit's  teaching, 
as  the  abiding  Word  of  God  in  His  Son,  our 
reverent  study  is  to  lead  the  way. 

Two  striking  examples  of  the  temporary  and 
the  permanent  in  Christ's  teaching  we  must  pass 
at  this  time  with  the  bare  mention. 

The  first,  Christ's  freedom  in  dealing  with  the 


IN  CHRIST'S  TEA CHING  1 5  5 

text  of  the  Old  Testament  Scripture,  has  been 
spoken  of  In  the  previous  lecture.  In  Him,  in 
His  person  and  in  His  teaching,  that  Scripture 
was  fulfilled.  Fulfilled  as  He  opens  its  mean- 
ing, the  Scripture  keeps  on  speaking  a  living 
message  in  history. 

The  other,  the  eschatology  of  Jesus,  the  con- 
stant recurrence  in  His  teaching  of  the  apoca- 
lyptic style,  with  the  marked  approval  of  that 
style  in  the  Epistles,  and  its  full  efflorescence  in 
the  Book  of  Revelation,  is  so  pronounced  a 
phenomenon  in  the  relation  of  the  temporary 
and  the  permanent  in  New  Testament  Revela- 
tion as  to  deserve  consideration  by  itself  in  the 
closing  lecture.  Eschatology,  and  the  chosen 
vehicle  for  expressing  it  in  the  style  of  an  apoca- 
lypse, is  perhaps  the  most  difficult  and  as  yet 
untraversed  subject  in  the  Scriptures.  Christian 
belief  is  still  fast  bound  in  the  spell  of  its  weird 
and  mysterious  fascination. 

3.  One  saying,  or  a  group  of  sayings, 
recorded  of  Jesus  in  the  Gospels,  claims  our  final 
attention,  both  from  its  prominence  and  value. 


156        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

and  from  the  light  it  may  shed  on  our  subject. 
This  is  His  teaching  about  sacrifice. 

The  permanent  meaning  of  sacrifice  had  to 
gain  its  place  slowly ;  it  is  still  far  from  com- 
plete apprehension.  As  an  Old  Testament  idea 
it  was  comparatively  clear,  though  its  clearness 
had  to  do  with  its  material  rather  than  with  its 
spiritual  significance.  Old  Testament  sacrifice 
was  the  offering  even  unto  death  of  one's  best  to 
one's  God.  Death  of  the  best,  as  a  gift  to  God, 
were  its  prime  notes. 

When  Jesus  came  it  would  seem  that  the  old 
Idea  of  sacrifice  must  disappear.  Yet  Jesus 
early  faced  the  fact  that  He  too,  God's  well- 
beloved  Son,  the  best  thing  in  God's  universe 
must  die.  Facing  the  fact,  He  broods  over  it. 
The  death  of  the  righteous  is  an  inevitable  issue 
in  an  unrighteous  world.  That  death  in  some 
mysterious  way  works  back  for  the  good  of  the 
unrighteous.  That  death  by  some  sort  of 
appropriation  the  redeemed  must  make  their 
own.  So  the  mind  of  the  Master  feels  its  way, 
pondering  the  problem  of  evil,  conscious  of  the 


IN  CHRIS T'S  TEA CHING  I  5 7 

long-suffering  love  of  God,  reading  the  large- 
visioned  words  of  the  prophets.  Then  Jesus 
speaks  :  "The  Son  of  man  shall  be  delivered  up 
into  the  hands  of  men,  and  they  shall  kill 
Him  ;"  "  The  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  min- 
istered unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  His 
life  a  ransom  for  many ; "  ''If  any  man  would 
come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take 
up  his  cross  and  follow  me.  For  whosoever 
would  save  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  whosoever 
shall  lose  his  life  for  my  sake  shall  fmd  it ;  " 
"  This  cup  is  the  New  Testament  in  my  blood, 
which  is  shed  for  you." 

Here,  in  Jesus'  meditation  and  utterance,  all 
the  words,  all  the  ideas,  whose  later  formulation 
has  revolutionized  the  doctrine  of  man  and  God. 
Here  are  death,  the  cross,  a  ransom,  the  blood, 
the  new  covenant  In  the  cup,  all  the  familiar 
terms  of  the  Christian  sacrifice  on  Christ's  own 
thoughtful  and  persuasive  lips.  Does  the  Old 
Testament  measure  their  meaning  ?  Do  the 
words  themselves  measure  their  meaning?  Do 
Paul  and  Peter,  do  Augustine  and  Anselm,  do 


158       THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE   PERMANENT 

Bushnell  and  Moody  measure  their  meaning  ? 
Has  the  permanent  message  of  Christ's  Sacri- 
fice, and  the  details  of  its  sorrow  and  blessing, 
yet  appeared  from  its  incidents  in  time,  from  the 
words  of  Master  and  disciple  striving  to  express 
it  ?  Rather  is  not  our  thinking  and  preaching 
still  in  bondage  to  the  material  elements  of 
Christ's  sacrifice,  and  of  our  sacrifice  in  His 
name,  from  which  He  strove  to  deliver  His  dis- 
ciples, and  against  which  Paul  uttered  repeated 
protest  even  while  his  reasoning  and  phraseology 
fell  again  under  its  dominion?  In  the  perma- 
nent message  of  Christ's  work  in  man's  redemp- 
tion blood  is  no  longer  blood,  death  is  no  longer 
death,  the  cross  is  no  longer  a  cross.  Christ's 
touch  on  them,  Christ's  use  of  them,  has  trans- 
figured their  physicalness,  their  horror,  their 
ignominy,  into  symbols,  and  symbols  of  beauty. 
The  cross  is  the  permanent  symbol  of  Christian- 
ity ;  but  it  is  not  the  wooden  cross,  it  is  not  the 
Roman  cross,  it  is  not  Paul's  cross,  or  the  cross 
of  Protestantism,  it  is  not  the  cross  of  my  ideal 
bearing;  it  is  the  cross  of  Christ,  the  cross  His 


IN  CHRIST'S  TEACHING  159 

life  and  death  illumined.  *'  We  are  left,  here  at 
least  and  now,  still  gazing  as  from  afar,  not  in 
fruition  but  in  faith,  on  that  which  we  have  not 
realized  in  ourselves.  We  are  still  kneeling  to 
worship,  with  arms  outstretched  from  ourselves 
in  a  wonder  of  belief  and  loving  adoration,  that 
reality  wholly  unique  and  wholly  comprehensive, 
the  figure  of  Jesus  crucified."* 


*  Moberly.     Atonement  and  Personality,  323. 


LECTURE  V. 

THE    TEMPORARY    AND  THE    PERMANENT  IN  PAUL's 
THEOLOGY. 

I.  Paul  is  the  Christian  theologian.  He  set 
the  scope,  even  gave  the  phrase,  for  all  later 
theologies.  Paul  did  not  know  Christ  In  the 
flesh.  Not  '*  from  his  wrltinors  alone  would  the 
reader  ever  know  that  there  was  a  baptism  in 
Jordan,  or  a  temptation  in  the  wilderness,  or  a 
sermon  on  the  mount,  or  a  parable  of  tender 
wisdom,  or  a  scathing  of  hypocrites,  or  an  up- 
lifting of  penitents,  or  an  agony  In  Gethsemane, 
of  one  who  bore  the  name  of  the  Son  of  Man."  * 
Experiencing  Christ  only  as  a  power  Paul 
sought  to  Interpret  Him  to  himself  and  to 
others. 

Beyond  question  is  he  not  only  an  Inspired 
Interpreter   of   the    religion    of    Christ,    but   Its 


*  Martineau.     Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion,  379-80. 


IN  PA  UVS  THEOLOG  Y  1 6 1 

most  original  and  profound  interpreter  as  well. 
Of  the  splendor  of  Paul's  witness  for  Jesus  it  is 
difficult  to  speak  with  sufficient  earnestness.  Of 
the  change  Paul  wrought  in  the  attitude  of  the 
world  of  men  toward  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  of  the  Gospel  in  its  presentation  toward  the 
world  of  men,  it  is  impossible  to  express  one's 
self  with  exaggeration.  He  found  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  hands  of  its  first  apostles, 
little  more  than  the  faith  of  a  Jewish  sect  who 
believed  that  Messiah  had  come.  He  left  it  a 
message  for  universal  humanity,  claiming  the  re- 
sponse of  the  world's  allegiance.  Converted 
from  the  persecutor  to  the  Christian  disciple  he 
set  his  eye  on  Rome  ;  and  every  step  he  travelled, 
every  thought  he  forged,  was  to  bring  that  world- 
capital  into  captivity  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  high- 
ways, the  commerce  which  all  centered  on  Rome 
centering  also  on  Christ,  roads  for  Christ's  mes- 
sengers to  travel,  agencies  for  dispersing  Christ's 
truth  far  and  wide. 

Did  Paul  succeed  ?     He  died,  as  his   Master 
had  died,  obscure,  unknown.     Yet  of  all  figures 


1 62      THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

of  that  age,  and  they  are  mighty,  soldiers  and 
kings  and  philosophers,  the  only  one  the  whole 
world  cares  to  remember  is  the  name  of  Christ, 
and  Paul  is  His  interpreter,  I  sometimes  think 
of  that  tent-maker,  poor  foot  traveller  along  the 
dusty  highways,  with  stooping  shoulders  and 
bleared  eyesight,  and  frame  wracked  with  fre- 
quent fever,  and  wonder  if  even  his  dauntless  soul, 
his  inward  eye  of  fire,  caught  from  afar  the  vision 
of  his  fame  for  all  time  to  come,  or  measured  the 
allegiance  he  would  win  for  the  cross  and  Him 
crucified.  His  has  been  a  triumph  more  rapid 
and  complete  than  he  would  have  wished  for, 
since  in  conquering  It  has  conceded  much  that  he 
valued  as  essential.  His  thought  has  mastered 
Christian  thinking  after  a  fashion  he  would  be 
the  first  to  regret,  since  Paul's  theology  some- 
times obscures  the  truth  of  the  Master.  He 
surely  would  hesitate  to  claim  or  even  to  accept 
the  dominant  place  Christianity  has  accorded  to 
him.  Men  are  Instinctive  hero-worshippers,  and 
Paul  stands  forth  as  Christianity's  hero,  Paul  the 
theologian. 


IN  PAUVS  THEOLOGY  1 63 

Unique  as  he  is,  Paul  was  also  a  man  of  his 
time.  ''His  school  days  in  a  Grecian  city,  his 
daily  contact  with  its  manners  and  its  arts, 
his  trade  with  the  shepherds  on  the  hills  above 
and  the  captains  of  the  ports  below,  had  opened 
to  him  a  world  which  it  were  more  divine  to  save 
than  to  destroy.  *  *  *  At  the  same  time, 
his  own  vehement  and  capacious  nature  moved 
uneasily,  though  on  that  very  account  with  the 
more  intensity,  within  the  narrow  discipline  of 
his  inherited  religion ;  and  was  ready  to  burst  its 
ligaments  and,  if  only  the  lash  would  be  quiet 
on  the  will,  to  achieve  a  double  fleetness  on  the 
wing  of  love."  * 

He  was  a  man  eager  to  claim  all  the  relation- 
ships which  were  the  title  deeds  of  honor  in  the 
circle  within  which  he  was  born. 

These  honors,  both  of  them  his  by  right,  both 
of  them  vehemently  championed,  were  two. 

He  was  a  Roman  citizen.  When  the  chief 
captain  answered,  *'  With   a  great  sum  obtained 


*  Martineau.     Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion,  379. 


164       THE   TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

I  this  citizenship,"  Paul  answered,  '*  But  I  am  a 
Roman  born." 

He  was  a  rabbi-taught  Jew,  "a  Hebrew  of 
Hebrews  ;  as  touching  the  law,  a  Pharisee  ;  as 
touching  the  righteousness  which  is  in  the  law, 
found  blameless."  "^ 

Of  both  inheritances,  however  difficult  their 
combination  in  one  man,  he  was  alike  proud. 
However  supreme  and  universal  the  embrace  of 
Jesus  as  Lord  to  which  his  Christian  disciple- 
ship  attained  ;  however  unstinted  his  outlook  of 
sympathy  and  confidence  on  all  the  world  of  men. 
Barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  and  free  ;  he  remained 
with  a  reserve  of  his  nature  in  touch  with  the 
superb  pride  of  a  citizen  of  Rome,  with  the 
separateness  of  the  elect  people  of  God.  A  rare 
combination :  the  aristocracy  of  Roman  and 
Hebrew  exclusiveness  with  the  democracy  of  an 
universally  interpreted  Gospel ;  a  combination 
found  only  in  a  short  period  of  the  world's  his- 
tory, within  a  limited  area  ;  an  effective  combina- 


*  Phil  III,    5-6. 


IN  PAUL'S  THEOLOGY  165 

tlon  In  a  man  of  reality  dealing  with  humanities. 
We  are  glad  Paul  was  just  a  man  of  his  unique 
time ;  it  gives  him  kinship  with  ourselves,  a  kin- 
ship not  of  exact  conditions,  but  of  world-long 
sympathies. 

The  man  and  his  thinking  require  a  translat- 
ing process.  All  the  more  marvelous  that  out 
of  these  two  elements  a  Christian  was  made,  the 
Christian,  we  may  say,  nearest  both  to  the  mind 
and  the  heart  of  his  Master.  This  world  Chris- 
tian was  made  out  of  a  Roman  and  a  Hebrew. 
**  No  permanent  change,"  writes  Dr.  Hatch, 
*'  takes  place  in  the  religious  beliefs  or  usages  of 
a  race  which  Is  not  rooted  in  the  existing  beliefs 
and  usages  of  that  race."  * 

The  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  especially  in  what 
we  call  their  argumentative  and  doctrinal  por- 
tions, are  a  struggle  on  the  great  Apostle's  part 
to  express  In  words  the  change  through  which 
his  soul  had  passed. 

The  terminology  adopted  by  an  earnest  man  Is 


*  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  and  Usages.  Hatch,  Page  4. 


1 66       THE    TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

the  result  of  his  experiences.  He  has  his  favor- 
ite words  chosen  to  express  these  experiences. 
Since  Paul's  life  divided  itself  into  two  parts, 
before  and  after  his  conversion,  his  ideas  ranged 
themselves  in  antithetical  form.  His  thoughts 
grouped  themselves  and  found  utterance  in  con- 
trasts :  law  and  grace,  faith  and  works,  the  old 
man  and  the  new,  the  letter  and  the  spirit.  A 
negative  is  put  first,  but  only  that  it  may 
heighten  the  contrast  with  the  positive.  What 
a  man  has  become  shines  out  the  more  from  what 
he  was. 

The  greater  the  experience,  the  greater  the 
task  of  finding  words  in  which  to  express  it. 
The  explanation,  in  large  measure,  of  the  over- 
whelming style  characterizing  Paul's  epistles : 
its  long  sentences,  its  intricacies  of  construction, 
Its  anacolutha,  its  parentheses,  its  massive  and 
compelling  sweep,  its  breaking  from  reasoning 
into  doxology,  its  things  hard  to  be  understood 
which  the  ignorant  and  unsteadfast  may  wrest 
to  their  own  destruction,  is  to  be  found,  not  so 
much  in  the  man  himself  as  in  the  mastering  ex- 


IN  PAUVS  THEOLOGY  1 6/ 

perlences  of  his  life  which  he  is  striving  to  record 
in  words.  "  Human  language  must  of  necessity 
act  as  a  limitation  to  the  freedom  of  the  incom- 
prehensible, illimitable  Spirit.  A  man  full  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  will  strive  to  pour  forth  to  others 
the  gift  which  God  has  committed  to  him  to  profit 
withal ;  but  when  he  would  do  this  in  words,  he 
finds  that  the  more  he  is  possessed  with  the 
Spirit  the  more  Is  he  straitened,  hampered, 
baffled  by  the  limitations  of  speech.  He  speaks 
with  stammering  lips ;  his  utterings  are  broken, 
abrupt,  inconsequent.  It  is  the  uninspired, 
shallow,  conventional  man  that  puts  forth  all  his 
mind  in  a  clear,  simple,  popular  style ;  the 
prophet  finds  the  Spirit  thwarted  by  the  letter, 
and  he  cannot  fully  utter  the  truth  that  Is  in 
him."  '^  Paul  must  reason  out  his  experiences, 
must  tell  forth  his  conclusions,  before  his  fellow 
men,  because  they  seemed  to  have  solved  his 
own  hard  problem  and  to  be  solvent  as  well  for 
all  human  needs. 


*  Bartlett.     The  Letter  and  the  Spirit,  25-26. 


1 68       THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

In  Uttering  his  heart  he  uses  words  already  in 
existence,  words  in  large  measure  cherished  by 
him  and  his  old  companions.  He  must  use 
words  with  which  he  was  familiar,  and  strive  to 
give  them  new  force.  You  remember  Luther's 
tribute  to  Paul's  terminology  when  he  says  that 
his  words  are  like  living  creatures  having  hands 
and  feet.  They  become  words  of  power.  They 
are  rooted  in  Paul's  rich  nature  and  supreme 
experiences.  In  a  measure  they  convey  that 
nature  and  experience  to  us,  the  measure  being 
largely  our  responsive  sympathy.  Because  of 
Paul's  preeminence  as  an  interpreter  of  the  Gos- 
pel, his  words  become  the  technical  words  of 
Christian  speech,  become  factors  of  moment  in 
moulding  Christian  thinking.  Yet  they  are  words 
still  and  as  such  demand  translation.  The  de- 
mand becomes  more  imperative  because  so  much 
Is  at  stake.  The  Greek  sense,  the  Pauline  sense, 
the  universal  sense  must  be  discovered,  the  one 
from  the  other.  Their  first  meaning  was  in 
Paul's  experience ;  then  they  became  his  eager 
message  to  his  fellows,  then  they  must  be  made 


IN  PA  UVS  THEOLOG  Y  1 69 

my  own  as  the  thought  of  Paul,  the  thought  of 
Christ,  the  thought  of  salvation  fitted  for  me. 

II.  St.  Paul's  humanness,  with  its  twofold 
proud  background,  constrained  his  reasoning, 
its  method  and  its  terminology,  into  two  chan- 
nels. 

These  are  the  Roman  and  the  Jewish.  We 
may  for  convenience  call  them  the  forensic  and 
the  rabbinic  in  his  style.  We  might  prefer  the 
word  legal  to  forensic  were  It  not  ambiguous. 
We  say  that  Rome  gave  to  the  world  law  and 
Israel  religion.  But  Israel's  religion  took  the 
form  of  law,  in  commandment  and  ceremonial. 
When  Paul  uses  the  word  law,  which  he  does 
constantly  and  in  a  technical  sense,  he  means 
that  kind  of  law  which  Israel's  religion  set  up. 
A  religion  that  took  the  form  of  law  he  felt  to 
be  a  failure,  and  found  in  Christianity  a  religion 
that  was  not  law  but  grace.  The  civil  aspect  of 
law,  Paul's  Roman  inheritance — its  terminology, 
'justice,'  'testaments,'  'heirship' — suggested  no 
such  antagonism  to  grace,  rather  lent  itself  to 
make  the  meaning  of  grace  clearer.     The  very 


I/O      THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT. 

ambiguity  of  legal  phraseology  in  Paul's  constant 
use :  its  one  look  from  the  Roman  side,  its 
other  look  from  the  Jewish:  suggests  the  min- 
gling in  the  one  man  of  both  inheritances. 

For  the  Roman  and  Jewish  aspects  of  his 
reasoning  constantly  run  into  each  other.  We 
find  it  hard  in  many  of  his  arguments  to  decide 
who  is  speaking,  the  Roman  or  the  Jew.  We 
only  know  it  is  not  a  man  of  the  modern  world. 
Justification  is  a  term  of  distinct  forensic  bear- 
ing, but  Paul's  affirmations  of  justification  draw 
their  illustrations  largely  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. The  cross,  with  its  nails  and  its  shame, 
is  a  Roman  punishment,  but  on  it  hung  the 
Lamb  of  the  Jewish  sacrifice.  Hardly  do  we 
know  which  in  Paul  to  put  first.  If  we  defer  to 
Rome's  greatness,  and  claim  him  first  as  a 
Roman,  it  is  not  that  he  himself  would  claim 
his  Roman  citizenship  as  his  proudest  title,  or 
that  he  makes  most  use  of  Roman  phraseology 
in  telling  the  supreme  secret  of  his  heart. 

Yet,  at  least  in  idea,  the  Roman  citizen  and 
the  Pharisee  of    the   Pharisees  are    distinguish- 


IN  PAUVS  THEOLOGY  I /I 

able.  In  the  Roman  Is  seen  pride,  confidence, 
world-domination  ;  these  marked  Paul  the  man. 
In  thought  the  influence  of  Rome  on  the  phras- 
ing of  Christian  theology  came  much  later;  but 
Paul  would  have  claimed  Greek  influence  for 
Rome,  counting  both  as  non-Jewish.  It  is  more 
in  his  habits  of  thought  than  in  the  words  he 
uses  that  Paul  shows  his  Roman  traininof.  Into 
the  forms — shall  we  call  them  shackles  ? — of  his 
own  minute  rabbinic  training  Paul's  thinking 
about  his  Christian  discipleship  was  compelled 
to  be  brought.  We  sometimes  wish  that  *'  firm 
as  his  grasp  Is  of  truths  unspoken  before,  and 
glorious  as  are  his  outbursts  of  thanksgiving  for 
an  emancipated  nature — that  he  would  let  them 
speak  for  themselves,  Instead  of  trying  to  extort 
them  from  cross  questionings  of  Hagar  and 
Ishmael,  or  striking  again  the  desert  rock  to 
make  them  flow."  *  From  this  rabbinic  vesting 
we  are  equally  compelled  to  disentangle  them 
anew  If  we  would  learn  from  Paul  the  way  of 
penitence  and  pardon  for  ourselves. 


Martiiieau.     Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion,  294, 


1/2        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Roman  and  Jewish  influence  alike  are  no 
part  of  the  world's  final  form  of  Christianity  :  its 
worship,  its  thinking  about  God  and  Christ  and 
man,  its  standard  of  ideal  goodness  seen  in 
Hebrew  as  blamelessness,  in  Roman  as  valor. 
These  forms  of  its  early  presentment  at  the 
hands  of  its  most  perfect  convert  may  interest 
us  as  archaic  studies,  as  historic  illustrations,  as 
ingenious  bits  of  logic  or  splendid  bursts  of 
rhetoric — the  universal  Gospel  for  the  universal 
man  has  yet  to  be  found  by  eliminating  feelings 
and  figures  and  processes  of  thought  of  even  a 
master  disciple.  "The  belief  that  metaphysical 
theology,"  writes  Dr.  Hatch  in  the  Hibbert  lec- 
tures of  1888,  "is  part  of  divine  revelation  has 
been  Christianity's  damnosa  hereditas.  It  has 
given  to  later  Christianity  that  part  of  it  which 
is  doomed  to  perish,  and  which  yet,  while  it 
lives,  holds  the  key  of  the  prison-house  of  many 
souls."  *  The  extent  of  the  influence  of  this 
traditional  theology,  whose   parentage  is  traced 


*  Hatch.     Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  and  Usages  upon 
Christian  Church,  138. 


IN  PAUVS  THEOLOGY  1 73 

to  Paul  by  every  theologian  of  every  school ;  the 
bondage  from  which  we  are  being  at  last 
brought  into  a  land  of  better  promise ;  the  thral- 
dom it  even  yet  exercises ;  the  hindrance  of  its 
unreal  phrases  to  our  own  pleas  with  men  to 
take  Christ  as  Master ;  the  obstacle  to  our 
brother's  understanding  and  acceptance  of  the 
grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation  ;  are  reason 
and  urgency  for  separating  the  temporary  ele- 
ments from  Paul's  teaching.  We  cannot  plead 
in  extenuation  that  each  age  and  each  school 
has  misunderstood  him ;  cannot  appeal  from 
Paul  misinterpreted  to  Paul  as  he  himself 
speaks,  till  we  have  addressed  ourselves  to  the 
honest  task  of  distinguishing  Paul  the  Christian 
from  Paul  the  Roman  and  the  Jew.  It  all 
issues  in  unrealness,  in  the  assertion  of  facts 
about  our  religious  life  we  do  not  for  one 
moment  believe.  It  may  well  be  that  we  no 
longer  hold  and  teach  that  Christ  suffered  the 
penalties  of  the  damned,  and  quote  Paul's 
**  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us  ;  "  we  may  have  dis- 
carded the  antinomian   heresy  that  there  is  no 


174      THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

righteousness  but  imputed  righteousness,  and 
that  all  the  good  acts  of  unenlisted  Christians 
are  filthy  rags,  though  Paul's  fervid  reasonings 
lend  us  text  after  text  for  such  immoral,  and 
may  I  say,  un-Christly,  ethics.  But  we  are  still 
under  the  bondage  of  religious  conceptions,  on 
the  one  hand  sacrificial,  on  the  other  hand  legal- 
istic, from  which  the  gift  of  Imagination,  the 
power  to  put  ourselves  in  Paul's  place  should 
long  since  have  released  us.  Old  things  have 
passed  away.  The  obsolete  has  been  con- 
demned. The  same  freedom  that  Paul  exercised 
In  dealing  with  Old  Testament  conceptions 
while  retaining  their  forms  of  expression  would 
put  him  In  the  forefront,  were  he  now  Chris- 
tianity's teacher,  in  condemning  our  slavish 
adherence  to  his  own  passing  phraseology.  *'  It 
appears  to  be  the  tragical  lot  of  mankind,  that  of 
the  great  performances  of  their  historical  heroes 
it  Is  always  the  limited  and  transient  form  rather 
than  the  eternal  Ideal  substance  which  in  the 
first  Instance  receives  chief  attention.  As  In 
ecclesiastical  Catholicism  the  dogmatic  form  of 


IN  PAUL'S  THEOLOGY  175 

Paulinism  was  preserved,  so  at  the  Reformation 
a  similar  fate  befell  revived  Paulinism  in  the 
new  scholasticism  of  orthodox  Protestant  be- 
lief." * 

All  reasoning  processes  have  necessarily  a 
taint  of  temporariness.  They  must  be  touched 
into  spiritual  life  to  become  permanent.  Bare 
logic,  however  convincing  to  the  intelligence, 
does  not  appeal  to  the  will.  Paul  never  rested 
on  his  argument  alone.  He  felt  and  expressed 
the  spiritual  purpose  to  which  it  ministered. 
Amid  his  most  intricate  reasonings  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  he  breaks  forth  into 
thanksgiving  for  the  truth  he  is  discovering ;  and 
closes  the  subtle  argument  of  the  whole  Epistle 
with  five  beautiful  chapters,  more  than  a  third 
part  of  the  Epistle,  of  practical  conclusions 
based  on  his  entire  course  of  thought,  how 
Christians  should  behave.  The  elaborated 
argument  for  imputed  righteousness  brings  him 
out  to  the  persuasion  '*  that  neither  death,  nor 


*  Pfleiderer.    The  Influence  of  Paul  on  Christianity,  230. 


1/6         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers, 
nor  things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor 
height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall 
be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God, 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  *  As  we 
read,  there  is  much  difficult  argument  over  which 
we  stumble.  As  we  conclude,  there  is  only 
power  from  on  high  for  right  living  over  which 
we  rejoice.  Which  things  are  an  allegory, 
wherein  we  may  see  for  all  time  how  to  read  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  Shall  we  keep  on  worship- 
ping his  processes  and  missing  his  conclusions, 
conning  his  arguments  and  despiritualizing  their 
purpose  ? 

Robert  Edward  Bartlett,  to  whose  Bampton 
lectures  on  the  Letter  and  the  Spirit  reference 
was  made  in  the  first  lecture,  and  from  whom  I 
have  already  frequently  quoted,  makes  an  admir- 
able presentation  of  this  feature  in  Paul's  writ- 
ings— a  noble  conclusion  reached  by  processes 
that  seem  to  us  as  fanciful  and  illogical.     In  his 


Rom.     VIII  :     38-39. 


IN  PAUnS  THEOLOGY  177 

argument  for  Israel's  Election  "he  comes  round 
to  the  great  conclusion  that  God's  mercy  is  over 
all  His  works  ;  that  He  has  concluded  all,  Jews 
and  Gentiles  alike,  in  unbelief,  that  He  may 
have  mercy  upon  all.  But  on  his  way  to  this 
conclusion  he  has  given  utterance  to  expressions 
which,  if  regarded  not  as  obiter  dicta,  but  as 
fundamental  principles,  may  easily  be  made  the 
basis  of  a  system  fatal  to  all  effective  belief  in 
God's  love  and  righteousness. — '  He  hath  mercy 
on  whom  He  will,  and  whom  He  will  He 
hardeneth.'  '  What  if  God,  willing  to  show  His 
wrath  and  to  make  His  power  known,  endured 
with  much  long  suffering  vessels  of  wrath  fitted 
unto  destruction  ? '  These  and  like  phrases, 
taken  by  themselves  and  exalted  into  theological 
dogmas,  have  agitated  the  Christian  Church  for 
centuries  with  barren  controversies,  and  filled 
men's  minds  with  dark  thoughts  of  God."  *  No 
phrases  of  theology  are  final.  They  partake  of 
the  perishable  character  of  all  human  effort,  of 


*  Bartlett.     The  Letter  and  the  Spirit,     d^. 


178       THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

the  very  intensity  of  the  age  in  which  they  origi- 
nated. Paul's  logical  processes  share  this  tem- 
porary element :  they  are  his  own  endeavor  to 
explain  and  measure  up  to  the  supreme  truths 
revealed  to  him  and  by  him. 

These  facts  established  in  our  minds :  St. 
Paul's  reasonings  the  effort  to  voice  and  drive 
home  his  deep  Christian  convictions  ;  the  exist- 
ence in  his  reasoning  of  two  elements,  a  Roman 
and  a  Jewish,  both  his  birthright,  both  dwelt 
upon  with  pride ;  the  inevitable  temporary  color 
given  to  his  theology,  and  through  him  to  all 
Christian  theology  as  its  patron  saint  ;  let  us 
read  his  Epistles  anew  to  let  the  light  of  these 
considerations  shine  into  his  message. 

The  thought  once  conceived,  its  verification  is 
met  on  every  page,  occasioning  in  us  both  sur- 
prise and  a  sense  of  diiificulty.  Such  examina- 
tion, to  be  of  any  real  service  in  a  single  lecture, 
must  content  itself  with  a  few  characteristic 
passages.  By  their  detailed  study  a  clue  is 
found  for  other  like  passages  as  our  reading 
meets  with  them. 


IN-  FAUVS  THEOLOGY  1/9 

III.    Roman  or  Forensic  lines  of  Argument. 

We  will  take  examples  of  the  Roman  or 
Forensic  argument  first.  This  was  not  probably 
the  more  important  factor  In  Paul's  style,  the 
Influence  of  his  Jewish  training  being  more  per- 
suasive, but  the  Roman  is  strong  in  some  very 
characteristic  Pauline  teaching. 

I.   Adoption. 

Five  times  in  his  Epistles  Paul  uses  the  word 
adoption,  viod^cia,  '*  that  we  might  receive  the 
adoption  of  sons."  *  The  phrase  has  been  taken 
bodily  into  the  Prayer  Book,  "  are  made  thy 
children  by  adoption  and  grace : "  and  in  the 
thanksgiving  of  the  Baptismal  Ofifice,  ''we  yield 
thee  hearty  thanks  that  it  hath  pleased  thee  to 
receive  him  for  thine  own  child  by  adoption." 

The  modern  implication  of  adoption  marks 
the  relationship,  to  use  the  least  disparaging 
term,  as  one  of  an  artificial  character.  An 
adopted  child  is  one  who  has  no  natural  ties  with 
his  legal    parent.     He    is    adopted  to  take  the 


Gal.     IV:  5. 


l8o       THE   TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

place  of  children,  because  there  are  in  the  house- 
hold no  children  of  its  own.  Is  our  theology  to 
take  its  tone  from  this  modern  conception  be- 
cause Paul  used  the  word  adoption  ?  Is  the 
supreme  truth  that  God  is  our  Heavenly  Father 
and  that  all  men  are  his  children,  to  be  emptied 
of  beauty  and  gladness — His  children,  yes  !  but 
only  His  adopted  children?  The  word  has 
tended  to  lose  from  Christian  thinking  just  the 
blessing  that  Christ  revealed  and  that  Paul 
cherished.  Are  we  to  force  a  literal  notion  of 
adoption,  and  that  a  modern  notion,  into  our 
Christian  theology,  and  so  lower  our  conception 
of  God's  relationship  to  men  ? 

Adoption  is  with  us  a  comparatively  rare 
social  incident.  With  the  Jews,  as  a  legal  tran- 
saction, it  was  absolutely  unknown.  "  The  family 
records  of  the  chosen  people  were  kept  with 
scrupulous  care,  in  order  that  the  lineage  of  the 
Deliverer  might  be  identified.  Fictitious  kin- 
ship could  manifestly  find  no  recognition  in  He- 
brew genealogies." 

With  the  Romans  adoption  occupied  a  very 


IN  PA  UVS  THEOLOG  Y  1 8 1 

different  place.  Its  ceremonies  were  among 
the  most  prominent  of  legal  recognition.  The 
adopted  son  was  in  the  family  exactly  as  if  he 
had  been  born  in  it.  Adoption  made  him  more 
a  member  of  the  family  than  descendants  through 
the  female  line,  and  so  far  annihilated  preexist- 
ing personality  as  to  operate  for  the  extinction 
of  debts.  Adoption  constituted  as  complete  a 
bar  to  intermarriage  as  relationship  by  blood.* 

St.  Paul,  trained  as  he  was  in  Roman  practices, 
made  use  of  this  word  adoption  to  express  a  new 
and  glorious  idea  which  his  conversion  had 
brought  home  to  him.  "  This  metaphor  was  his 
translation  into  the  language  of  Gentile  thought 
of  Christ's  great  doctrine  of  the  New  Birth.  He 
exchanges  the  physical  metaphor  of  regeneration 
for  the  legal  metaphor  of  adoption.  By  the  aid 
of  this  figure  the  Gentile  convert  was  enabled  to 
realize  in  a  vivid  manner  the  fatherhood  of  God, 
the  brotherhood  of  the  faithful,  the  obliteration 
of  past  penalties,  the  right  to  the  mystic  inher- 


*  St.  Paul  and  the  Roman  Law.     W.  E.  Ball,  4-6. 


1 82       THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

itance."  *  He  distinguished  man's  relation  to 
God's  Fatherhood  from  Christ's  by  naming 
Christ  as  a  son  by  nature  and  man  as  a  son  by 
adoption,  both  sonships  sharing  a  common  noble- 
ness. By  the  use  of  the  term  he  exalts  rather 
than  disparages  man's  sonship.  The  same  is 
true  of  allied  words  that  gain  their  significance 
in  large  measure  from  association  with  adoption, 
such  as  testament,  inheritance,  assurance,  spon- 
sorship. Their  use  is  to  be  explained  from 
Roman  forensic  usages.  Their  abiding  meaning 
is  to  be  found  in  Roman  use  again  and  again 
Christianized. 

When  Paul,  with  the  best  words  with  which 
he  was  familiar,  lifted  the  meaning  of  man's  son- 
ship  to  God  far  above  its  previous  signification, 
we  are  not  to  drop  it,  because  the  word  he  uses 
has  changed  its  meaning,  below  Paul's  purpose. 
Men  were  potentially  sons  before  Christ's  com- 
ing, though  actually  slaves.  The  chains  of  their 
slavery  were  struck  off,  and  they  were  formally 


*  St.  Paul  and  the  Roman  Law.     W.  E.  Ball,  5-6. 


IN  PAUL'S  THEOLOGY  1 83 

adopted  into  the  place  where  they  already  be- 
longed. Robertson's  explanation  of  baptism  is 
at  least  a  permissible  view,  that  in  baptism, 
"■  made  a  child  of  God,"  means  proclaimed — he 
cannot  be  crowned  king  who  is  not  king  already. 
Father,  Son,  mean  something  different,  some- 
thing new,  something  more  than  procreation  and 
descent,  when  God  is  found  to  be  Father  and 
Jesus  found  to  be  Son,  and  man  to  have  a  share 
in  that  sonship  and  brotherhood.  If  the  noble 
word  adoption  helped  Paul  to  this  truth  of  Chris- 
tian revelation  it  was  good  to  use  it ;  if  it  hind- 
ers our  embrace,  we  will  drop  the  word  and  hold 
the  truth.  **  ^^q.2,ws^  ye  are  so7is,  God  sent  forth 
the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into  our  hearts,  crying, 
Abba,  Father."  * 

Adoption,  with  its  closely  associated  terms, 
may  be,  perhaps,  the  one  example  of  an  idea  in 
Paul's  theology  taken  wholly  from  Rome. 
Other  illustrations  primarily  forensic,  are  modi- 
fied by  Jewish  association.      Both   relationships 


*  Gal.  IV  :  6. 


1 84        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

are  affected  by  the  further  use  in  a  Universal 
Gospel. 

2.     Justification. 

The  word  justification  used  of  the  Heavenly 
Father's  welcome  for  His  children,  is  a  forensic 
word,  a  word  of  courts,  of  legal  relationships. 
In  its  thought  it  is  Roman,  in  its  application  it  is 
Jewish.  Its  forensic  origin  exerted  a  baneful 
effect  even  on  Paul  himself  as  a  reasoner.  He 
is  found  substituting  for  one  legal  justlfier,  the 
works  of  the  law,  another  legal  justifier,  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ.  Though  in  Paul's  view  these  were 
opposites,  though  to  him  faith  meant  the  con- 
sciousness of  God's  love  in  Jesus  Christ  made  his 
own,  yet  as  a  forensic  justifier  on  a  line  with 
works  it  too  becomes  an  act  of  man.  Belief  in 
the  Creed  has  as  a  consequence  taken  the  place 
of,  taken  its  place  with,  the  works  of  the  law  as 
the  way  of  man's  salvation.  The  Jew  who  mitst 
keep  the  law  has  only  given  place  to  the  Chris- 
tian who  must  beUeve  the  Creed.  How  utterly 
would  Paul  himself  repudiate  this  result  !  It 
comes  from  the  temporary  expression  of  a  great 
truth  securing  permanent  canonization. 


IN  PAUVS  THEOLOGY  1 85 

Justification  is  a  noble  word,  Paul's  discovery, 
Luther's  re-discovery,  to  express  a  noble  and 
lost  idea.  Its  nobleness  is  found  as  it  throws 
off  the  wrappings  of  its  origin.  In  great  emer- 
gencies words  appear  as  things.  Retained  as 
only  a  word,  a  literal  word  in  a  decadent  age,  it 
hides  the  thing,  prevents  its  realization.  There 
are  signs  of  a  wiser  reading  of  Paul's  revelation 
to-day.  The  way  of  man's  salvation,  which  he 
expressed  so  honestly  as  Justification  by  Faith, 
we  are  pressing  with  new  formularies,  paraphras- 
ing his  temporary  and  legalistic  phrases.  Har- 
mony with  the  divine  purpose  ;  Social  Service  ; 
service  of  man  in  God's  name  ;  sonship  to  the 
Heavenly  Father,  and  brotherhood  of  man  in 
Christ's  brotherhood ;  these  are  our  day's  sum- 
mons to  Christian  discipleship.  The  gift  of 
prophecy  is  to  tell  the  old  story  in  fresh  lan- 
guage, with  figures  of  present  day  appositeness. 

IV.     Jewish  or  Rabbinical  Imes  of  argument. 

As  we  pass  to  examples  of  Jewish  or  rabbin- 
ical lines  of  argument  in  Paul's  theology,  we 
remember  that  Paul  was  a  rabbi  and  not  a  priest. 


1 86       THE    TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

His  concern,  in  his  discussions,  was  with  God  as 
the  giver  of  law  rather  than  with  God  in  the 
temple  as  object  of  worship.  His  language, 
even  when  it  has  to  do  with  sacrifice,  is  rabbin- 
ical and  not  sacerdotal.  Hence,  his  illustrations 
and  arguments  are  in  the  main  from  the  law  as 
ethical,  as  laying  down  commandments  and 
enforcing  penalties.  In  this  he  differs  from  the 
author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

Taking  up  the  rabbinical  side  of  Paul,  our 
attention  will  be  directed  rather  to  particular 
lines  of  argument  than  to  general  processes  of 
thought.  Paul's  narrower  rabbinism  appears  in 
his  logic  as  his  Roman  inheritance  colors  his 
theology.  The  rabbinical  schools  had  their  own 
peculiar  ways  of  reasoning ;  ways  inconsequen- 
tial from  our  point  of  view  and  certainly  tran- 
sient :  but  they  were  the  ways  of  Paul's  logic. 

It  is  true  of  Paul's  rabbinic  processes  as  of  his 
forensic  or  Roman  that  they  have  deeply  affected, 
perhaps  injuriously,  our  Christian  ways  of  think- 
ing. The  whole  presentation  of  man's  sin  as 
closely  related  to  the   sin   of  Adam,  and  to  be 


IN  PAUVS  THEOLOGY  iS/ 

interpreted  by  It,  is  artificial  and  dangerous.  It 
tends  to  relieve  the  individual  from  a  sense  of 
responsibility  for  his  own  wrong  acts  ;  it  pro- 
vokes from  the  unbeliever  amusement,  if  not 
denial  ;  It  fails  In  all  persuasive  power,  not  help- 
ing a  man  to  realize  penitence  and  obtain  par- 
don for  his  own  need  ;  but  itself,  since  it  conjures 
by  the  mighty  name  of  Paul,  first  demanding 
explanation.  It  is  no  part  of  the  permanent 
message  of  the  Gospel.  It  may  have  a  suitable 
historical  and  figurative  place  in  our  liturgies, 
though  It  seems  Incongruous  to  give  thanks  that 
a  little  Infant  has  put  off  the  old  man ;  but  in 
our  reasonings  and  persuasions  It  Is  antiquated. 

Still,  we  may  say,  Paul's  general  Old  Testa- 
ment way  of  speaking  has  become  endeared  to 
us,  using  the  facts  and  figures  of  sacred  history 
as  symbols  of  universal  experiences.  He  makes, 
by  very  contrast  with  the  puerile  concerns  of 
the  barren  rabblnism  in  which  he  was  trained, 
great  stories  and  great  truths  live.  He  Is  him- 
self working  out  from  his  traditional  predilections, 
as  when  he  finds  the  orlo-In  of  sin  to  be  now  in 


1 88       THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

Adam  and  now  in  his  own  flesh,  from  which 
contrast  or  contradiction  abiding  truth  must 
emerge. 

To  the  lines  of  argument  by  which  he  sup- 
ports his  contentions  we  now  turn,  and  find  our- 
selves perplexed  as  Christian  students  and 
teachers.  Reasonings,  endeared  to  the  rabbi, 
are  utterly  unreal  to  us  and  in  the  larger  sense 
untrue. 

I.     Rabbinical  dealing  with  Facts. 

In  dealing  with  facts  of  the  Old  Testament 
Paul's  rabbinical  training  shows  a  complete 
indifference  to  history  as  history ;  exalts  unveri- 
fied tradition  to  an  equal  place  in  his  argument 
as  history  itself ;  deals  with  the  persons  of  his- 
tory as  not  so  much  persons  as  symbols  and 
allegories.  ''  For  they  drank  of  that  spiritual 
rock  that  followed  them  ;  "  *  there  was  no  rock 
that  followed  them,  save  in  the  imagination  of 
the  rabbis.  "  For  these  women  are  two  coven- 
ants," f  Hagar  to  Paul  being  rather  a  mountain  in 


*  I  Cor.  X  :    4. 
t  Gal  IV  :  24, 


IN  PA  UVS  THEOLOG  Y  1 89 

Arabia  than  the  wife  of  Abraham  and  mother  of 
Ishmael.  Abraham  himself  is  twice  introduced 
in  an  elaborate  exposition  as  an  example  of  justi- 
fication by  faith  and  not  by  law,  the  whole  argu- 
ment turning-  on  Abraham's  priority  to  Moses. 
But  the  value  of  a  truth  does  not  lie  in  its 
priority  in  time  but  in  its  essential  character. 
''  Christian  doctrine  rests  finally,  not  on  theories 
of  what  man  was  or  was  not  in  prehistoric  times, 
but  on  the  indubitable  realities  of  experience."  * 
This  method  of  dealing  with  Old  Testament 
people  and  narratives  as  primarily  embodying 
the  revelations  of  the  Gospel,  is  harmless 
enough  if  treated  with  comparative  indifference. 
If  only  we  had  the  courage  to  be  as  free  with 
Paul,  rabbi  and  reasoner,  as  he  with  patriarchs 
and  kings  !  Christian  thinking  has  fastened  a 
yoke  upon  the  neck  of  Christian  disciples  neither 
Paul  nor  we  are  able  to  bear.  Arguments  casual 
and  temporary,  such  as  Paul  the  rabbi  was  him- 
self yielding  to  Paul  the  apostle,  are  made,  if  not 


*  Forrest.  The  Christ  of  History  and  of  Experience,  271. 


1 90       THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

articles  of  the  Christian  faith,  yet  steps  in  Chris- 
tian discipleship.  Adam  and  Abraham  and 
Esau  and  Moses,  their  vivid  personaHties  and 
splendid  service  to  their  own  time  obscured  by 
rabbinical  glosses,  have  been  laid  upon  our 
Christianity  as  abstract  ideas  which  we  must 
accept  or  else  miss  salvation.  Paul  himself 
would  be  foremost  in  decrying  such  slavery  to 
the  letter,  and  properly  plead  his  own  use  with 
the  Old  Testament  against  it. 

2.     Rabbinical  methods  of  exegesis. 

In  close  relation  with  his  handling  of  the  per- 
sons and  stories  of  the  Old  Testament  is  Paul's 
handling  of  the  text.  Paul  is  an  exegete  rather 
than  a  philosopher.  He  reaches  his  conclusions 
by  an  appeal  to  Old  Testament  texts  and  he 
deals  with  those  texts  after  a  purely  rabbinical 
fashion.  His  conclusions  are  of  permanent 
value,  are  inspired  truths  revealed  from  God  at 
Paul's  hands.  His  methods  of  defence  are 
purely  human,  lend  no  support  to  the  conclu- 
sion, require  themselves  study  and  apology. 
They  are   not  ways  of   reasoning  acceptable   or 


IN  PAUVS  THEOLOGY  IQI 

even  true  to  our  thinking.  Other  and  living 
supports  for  the  great  truths  set  forth  must  be 
found  afresh  in  each  age.  So  philosophy  is 
summoned  to  defend  the  being  of  God,  the  free- 
dom of  the  will,  the  moral  authority  by  fresh 
arguments  as  the  old  become  discredited.  The 
same  powers  he  had  used  in  denouncing  Jesus 
as  a  fanatic  and  blasphemer  before  his  conver- 
sion Paul  now  used  to  proclaim  Him  as  Re- 
deemer and  to  glory  in  His  cross,  but  they  were 
powers  limited  by  his  technical  training. 

When,  in  writing  to  the  Galatians,  he  repre- 
sents the  promise  made  to  Abraham  as  spoken 
to  his  seed,  he  adds,  *'  He  saith  not.  And  to 
seeds,  as  of  many  ;  but  as  of  one.  And  to  thy 
seed,  which  is  Christ."  *  The  whole  argument 
turns  on  the  use  of  a  noun  in  the  singular  num- 
ber. But  the  noun  is  collective  and  refers  to 
the  posterity  of  Abraham  as  a  whole,  not  to  any 
individual  The  prophefs  eye  may  see  the  in- 
dividual as  alone  fulfilling  the  promise,  but  the 


=^  Gal.  Ill,  i6. 


192        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

grammarian  and  the  logician  cannot  find  him  in 
the  singular  number,  ''  seed." 

Scattered  through  the  whole  tenth  chapter  of 
the  Epistles  to  the  Romans,  in  which  the  Apos- 
tle deals,  his  heart  full  of  tenderness,  with  the 
problem  of  Israel's  unbelief  and  consequent 
rejection,  are  quotations  from  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. Verses  5-8  contain  quotations  from 
Moses  in  the  Law,  intermingled  with  sayings  of 
Paul  in  the  Gospel.  These  quotations,  we  may 
say,  as  the  readers  felt,  have  a  good  sound. 
They  are  taken  from  the  Septuagint  and  not 
from  the  Hebrew.  They  are  apparently  from 
memory,  being  singularly  inexact.  Worst  im- 
peachment of  all,  they  are  used  not  only  with  a 
meaning  differing  from  that  of  their  original 
purpose,  but  conveying  its  exact  opposite. 
''  For  Moses  writeth  that  the  man  that  doeth 
the  righteousness  which  is  of  the  law  shall  live 
thereby.  But  the  righteousness  which  is  of 
faith  saith  thus  " — this  last  sentence  is  Paul  in 
the  Gospel,  then  he  takes  up  Moses  again,  and 
quotes  what  he   says   of   the  law  as  though  it 


JN  PAUVS  THEOLOGY  1 93 

were  said  of  the  Gospel — *'  Say  not  In  thine 
heart,  Who  shall  ascend  into  heaven  ?  or,  Who 
shall  descend  into  the  abyss  ?  But  what  saith 
it  ?  The  word  is  nigh  thee,  in  thy  mouth  and 
in  thy  heart  "  * — then  Paul  drops  Moses,  yet 
goes  right  on — "-  that  is,  the  word  of  faith  which 
we  preach."  If  you  can  rescue  this  quotation 
from  its  intricacies  of  Moses  and  Paul,  of  Law 
and  Gospel,  you  will  find  its  method,  as  Dr. 
Sanday  says  in  the  International  Commentary, 
"  the  same  as,  and  as  good  as,  that  of  the  rabbis, 
but  no  better. — As  an  expounder  of  religion 
Paul  belonged  to  the  whole  world  and  to  all 
time  ;  as  a  logician,  he  belonged  to  the  first 
century.  *  *  *  Paul  isolates  one  side  of  his 
argument  in  one  place,  one  in  another,  and  just 
for  that  very  reason,  we  must  never  use  isolated 
texts.  *  "^  "^  The  doctrinal  deductions  must  be 
made  at  the  end  of  Chapter  XI  and  not  of 
Chapter  IX."  f 


*  Deut.  XXX  ;  12-14. 

f  Sanday.     Romans,   International   Commentary,    304, 
267? 


194        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Illustrations  of  such  modes  of  reasoning,  to 
be  found  in  every  Epistle,  do  not  militate 
against  the  splendor  of  Paul's  arguments,  or 
their  convincing  power  as  a  whole.  Only  in  the 
lesser  logic  we  find  processes  to  be  discounted 
as  temporary,  for  which  must  be  substituted 
modes  of  apology  calculated  to  appeal  to  our 
time.  The  monuments  of  ancient  architecture 
are  beyond  criticism  ;  in  many  of  their  interior 
adaptations  modern  science  may  suggest  im- 
provements. Christ  did  redeem  us  from  the 
law  —  that  is  the  glorious  discovery  of  St. 
Paul,  set  forth  at  length  and  from  varied 
points  of  approach  in  Galatians,  Corinthians  and 
Romans.  To  our  reading  the  burden  of  the 
law  is  felt  to  have  even  a  wider  application  than 
Paul  realized,  and  Christ's  deliverance  has 
reached  on  to  needs  he  did  not  know,  and  the 
rationale  of  the  release  finds  explanations  to 
which  the  Epistles  can  only  minister  a  stimulus. 

V.  There  remain,  for  our  thought  in  this  lect- 
ure, some  practical  passages  in  Paul's  writings, 
partly  figures  of  rhetoric,   partly  advice  on  be- 


IN  PAUVS  THEOLOGY  I95 

havior,  that  illustrate  temporary  features  in  St. 
Paul,  which  we  must  learn,  as  we  have  the  right, 
to  put  in  the  background. 

1.  It  has  been  aptly  suggested  that  Paul's 
favorite  illustration  of  the  Christian  life  by 
military  figures  has  occasioned  an  unfortunate, 
at  least  an  overabsorbing,  adoption  of  that 
figure  in  Christian  hymns,  and  in  Christian  pro- 
fession. That  a  figure  is  Scriptural,  while  it 
lends  sacredness,  may  obscure  rather  than  make 
plain  a  truth  or  an  act.  Our  modern  Christian 
illustrations  would  be  more  naturally  taken  from 
society  or  from  sanitation.  In  his  figures,  Paul 
was  far  less  human  and  universal  than  his 
Master.  Paul  went  through  the  Roman  world 
seeing  nothing  but  men  at  their  work,  having 
apparently  no  eye  for  nature  or  art.  Jesus 
Christ,  in  his  limited  area  of  Palestine,  was  alive 
to  the  beauty  of  flower  and  stream,  loved  the 
mountain  side  apart,  and  the  plays  of  little 
children. 

2.  In  his  Epistles,  as  being  letters  of  counsel 
to    Christian  converts  of    his   own    apostleship, 


196        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Paul  is  compelled  to  give  practical  advice  on 
minute  details.  These  relate  not  alone  to 
morals,  but  to  passing  customs  and  the  need 
of  special  localities.  They  are  of  the  nature  of 
sumptuary  legislation,  which  is  discredited  in 
our  time,  finding  its  only  reason  in  temporary 
emergency.  An  unreasoning  reverence  for 
every  word  of  Scripture  fastens  these  usages  on 
states  of  life  for  which  they  have  no  meaning. 
This  brings  the  Bible,  and  the  Christian  Church 
so  handling  it,  into  merited  condemnation. 

In  a  most  striking  and  difficult  passage  in  the 
First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,*  Paul  bids 
men  keep  their  heads  uncovered  in  church,  and 
women  covered.  He  enforces  his  instructions 
by  an  elaborate  and  complicated  argument.  Its 
culmination,  **  For  this  cause  ought  the  woman 
to  have  power  on  her  head  because  of  the 
angels,"  has  taxed  the  diligence  and  ingenuity 
of  Scriptural  scholars.  It  surely  is  both  a 
rabbinical  style  of   argument   and   a   rabbinical 


*  I  Cor.  XI  :  2-16. 


IN  PA  UVS  THEOLOG  Y  1 97 

use  of  an  Old  Testament  legend.  The  not- 
able feature  in  the  passage  is  its  influence  on 
the  customs  of  Christendom.  In  Christian 
assemblies  through  all  the  ages,  no  matter  what 
the  climate  or  the  local  conditions,  men  go 
uncovered  and  women  are  covered  because  Paul 
so  advised  the  Church  in  Corinth.  And  a 
Christian  bishop  directs  that  female  candidates 
for  confirmation  in  America,  wear  some  sort  of  a 
veil,  which  should  be  provided  at  public  expense, 
because  it  was  a  shame  for  a  woman  to  be 
uncovered  in  heathen  and  dissolute  Corinth. 
Herein  surely  is  the  perpetuation  of  a  temporary 
injunction  which  misses  the  Apostle's  noble  and 
permanent  principle,  that  the  usage  of  Chris- 
tians should  not  go  counter  to  the  social  habits 
of  the  communities  where  they  live.  In  Paul's 
writings,  as  in  Christ's  teachings,  the  principle  is 
to  be  discovered  and  applied.  Its  application 
will  vary  from  that  of  another  age  and  people, 
perhaps  be  the  exact  opposite. 

We  may  well  let  Paul  Interpret  himself.     We 
no  longer  feel  it  unsafe  to  hold  him  mistaken 


iqS      the  temporary  and  the  permanent 

about  Christ's  second  coming  in  his  earlier 
Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians.  "  We  that  are 
alive  shall  be  caught  up  in  the  clouds,  to  meet 
the  Lord  in  the  air ;  "  *  and  correcting  it  in  his 
dying  words  to  Timothy,  ''  For  I  am  now  ready 
to  be  offered,  and  the  time  of  my  departure  is  at 
hand."f  We  may  still  emphasize  Justification, 
the  Death  of  Christ,  and  the  Cross,  Paul's 
divine  legacy  to  Christian  faith  and  hope ;  but 
he  himself  will  help  us  to  read  new  meanings 
into  these.  Let  Paul  speak  once  again  to  us,  in 
our  language  and  after  our  needs.  Let  his 
enthusiasm  be  contagious  and  perpetual,  but  it 
was  an  enthusiasm  appealing  to  no  earthly  or 
sordid  passion,  it  was  an  enthusiasm  for  the  one 
thing  that  cannot  die  out  of  the  world,  but  lives 
on  with  fresh  fervor  and  new  expression,  the 
enthusiasm  which  Paul  terms  ''  the  love  of 
Christ." 

As  we  read,  again  and  again,  with  new  wonder 


*  I  Thess,  IV  :  17, 
t  II  Tim.  IV  :  6. 


IN  PAUVS  THEOLOGY  199 

and  new  gladness,  the  story  of  that  love,  which 
Paul  had  made  his  own  and  so  become  a  new 
man,  which  he  strove  with  all  his  gifts  and  train- 
ing to  make  clear  to  others,  we  find,  to  para- 
phrase a  great  word  of  Dean  Stanley  in  his 
lecture  on  Abraham,  ''  the  hands  are  the  hands 
of  the  rabbinic  Saul ;  but  the  voice  is  the  voice 
of  Paul  the  Apostle — the  voice  which  still  makes 
itself  heard  across  deserts  and  continents  and 
seas  ;  heard  wherever  there  is  a  conscience  to 
listen,  or  an  imagination  to  be  pleased,  or  a  sense 
of  reverence  left  amongst  mankind."  * 


*  Stanley's  Jewish  Church,  Vol.  I,  p.  13. 


LECTURE  VI. 

THE     TEMPORARY     AND    THE    PERMANENT     IN    THE 
APOCALYPTIC    STYLE. 

I.  The  Fact  of  that  Style. 
I.  In  New  Testament  times  a  style  prevailed, 
particularly  in  religious  writing,  that  is  far 
aloof  from  the  style  in  general  use  with  us,  and 
one  difficult  to  understand.  It  had  come  as  an 
inheritance  from  the  Sacred  Writings  of  the 
past.  Its  first  appearance  in  canonical  literature 
is  the  Book  of  Daniel ;  and  two  hundred  years 
later  the  closing  Book  of  the  New  Testament 
Canon,  the  Book  of  Revelation,  em.ployed  the 
same  style.  The  name  of  this  literature  is  apoc- 
alyptic. The  apocalyptic  style  is  not  confined 
to  these  two  canonical  books.  It  marks  books 
associated  with  both  Testaments,  within  and 
without  the  so-called  Apocrypha.  We  recall,  as 
examples,  the  Book  of  Enoch  and  the  Revela- 
tion of  Peter. 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  201 

Not  only  does  the  apocalyptic  style  appear  as 
the  characteristic  mark  of  some  books,  it  also  is 
a  permeating  note  in  many  writings  which  are 
not  spoken  of  as  apocalyptic.  This  could  hardly 
fail  to  be  so  since  its  use  was  current  and 
accepted — thus  an  apocalyptic  style  runs  through 
the  utterances  of  Christ  and  the  writings  of 
Paul. 

This  is  a  literary  phenomenon  requiring  care- 
ful examination  as  we  separate  the  temporary 
from  the  permanent.  We  must  determine  how 
far  such  a  style  conceals  and  how  far  it  reveals 
the  truth  :  what  allowance  should  be  made  In  our 
interpretation  of  the  truth  thus  expressed  ;  how 
far  its  phraseology  and  atmosphere  should  be 
part  of  the  abiding  message  of  religion.  In  a 
word  the  separation  of  the  temporary  from  the 
permanent  finds  such  marked  exemplification  in 
the  apocalyptic  style  as  to  give  warrant  for  de- 
voting a  special  hour  to  Its  study. 

2.  What  is  this  apocalyptic  style  in  which  two 
books  of  the  Bible  are  wholly  written,  whose 
influence    is   felt  in    so    much  of  the   treasured 


202       THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT. 

teachings  of  other  books,  and  which  left  the 
sacredness  of  its  method  to  many  books  barely 
omitted  from  the  canon  in  either  Testament  ? 

Apocalypse  is  an  uncovering  of  something 
hidden,  a  revelation  of  something  unknown. 
John's  Apocalypse  is  not  the  only  revelation. 
The  emphasis  of  this  definition  is  to  be  laid,  in 
either  clause,  on  the  last  member.  The  thing 
hidden  which  is  now  uncovered,  the  something 
unknown  which  is  now  revealed,  that  was  what 
the  earnest  Jew  and  Christian  valued  ;  the  mys- 
tery made  clear  rather  than  the  method  of  dis- 
closing it. 

The  word  apocalypse  is  closely  associated  with 
the  word  eschatology.  Eschatology  is  the  sci- 
ence of  the  Last  Things.  The  association  is  so 
close  that  in  practical  use,  while  the  words  are,  of 
course,  not  synonymous,  they  mutually  suggest 
each  other.  Eschatological  subjects  are  uniformly 
treated  in  the  apocalyptic  style.  The  last 
things  :  Death,  the  Intermediate  state.  Resur- 
rection, Judgment,  Heaven,  Hell ;  these  mys- 
teries are  handled  in  a  mysterious  style.      Both 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  203 

subjects  are  before  us  in  this  lecture.  Escha- 
tology — the  idea  ;  Apocalypse — its  method  of 
expression.  All  the  mysteries  that  men  want  to 
know  about :  what  lies  before  them ;  the  out- 
come of  what  now  is ;  the  issue  for  the  man,  the 
nation,  the  world,  the  soul  ;  the  whole  problem 
gathered  by  the  Seer  into  the  one  transcendent 
word  Life.  These  are  the  interests  of  escha- 
tology  as  a  philosophy,  and  of  apocalypses  as  a 
style.  You  see  how  wide  a  range  the  subject 
covers.  The  centre  of  gravity  of  early  Christian 
faith  and  doctrine  was  eschatology.  Jesus  has 
added  the  fate  of  the  world  and  of  the  soul  to 
the  earlier  interest  in  the  fate  of  Israel  alone. 

The  characteristics  of  the  apocalyptic  style,  as 
it  deals  with  these  mysteries,  are  : 

(i.)  The  use  of  figures,  material  figures, 
often  gross,  always  intense. 

(2.)  A  fantastic  habit,  of  which  the  best  that 
may  be  said  is  that  it  is  highly  artificial. 

(3.)  Enigmatic  utterance.  This  perhaps  be- 
comes the  most  distinctive  mark  of  the  apocalyp- 
tic style,  largely  because  it  gave  most  pleasure  ; 


204        THE  TEMPORAR  V  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

the  reader  was  set  to  solving  the  puzzle.  In 
the  solution  he,  and  countless  generations  of  his 
successors,  busied  at  the  same  pious  task,  lost  all 
sense  of  the  spiritual  message  in  their  ingenious 
guesses  about  the  meaning  of  its  expression.  A 
puzzle — does  its  difficult  solution  pay  busy 
people?  It  is  such  a  different  kind  of  figure 
from  the  Master's  gracious  parables ;  the  study 
of  these  ennobles  in  the  very  process.  Daniel's 
**  weeks,"  and  "  the  number  of  the  beast  "  are  but 
samples.  May  not  the  permanent  reading  of 
the  Bible  leave  their  solving,  at  least  as  a  spirit- 
ual value,  out  of  account  ?  When  Christian  piety 
comes  to  its  Holy  Week,  It  may  better  read  the 
simple  record  of  the  Evangelists  how  Jesus  suf- 
fered than  con  over  the  meanlnor  of  Daniel's 
vision  ;  ''  After  the  three-score  and  two  weeks 
shall  the  anointed  one  be  cut  off — and  he  shall 
make  a  firm  covenant  with  many  for  one  week 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  week  he  shall  cause  the 
sacrifice  and  oblation  to  cease."*     For  the  full, 


=*Dan.  IX  :  26-27. 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  20$ 

perfect  and  sufficient  sacrifice  Jias  been  offered 
for  the  sin  of  the  whole  world.  Nor  can  we 
subscribe  to  the  assertion  of  the  Book  of  Revela- 
tion :  '*  Here  is  wisdom  :  let  him  that  hath 
understanding  count  the  number  of  the  beast  : 
for  it  is  the  number  of  a  man  ;  and  his  number 
is  six  hundred  three-score  and  six."*  Whatever 
the  dread  of  the  seer  over  Roman  tyranny,  we 
can  without  danger  say  Nero,  and  not  666,  if  we 
mean  Nero. 

(4).  A  sense  of  superiority.  A  confidence 
amounting  almost  to  arrogance  appears  in  the 
apocalyptic  style.  Daniel's  modesty  saves  him 
from  such  apparent  arrogance,  even  more  than 
we  find  in  the  book  of  Revelation.  The  Apoc- 
alyptist  knows  all  about  the  other  world,  its 
times,  inhabitants,  occupations  ;  knows  nothing 
about  this  world,  its  duties,  its  morals — as  wit- 
ness the  Anabaptists  ; — has  a  lofty  pity  for  the 
ignorant  whom  he  does  not  propose  to  enlighten 
unless  they  acquire  his  shibbolerh. 


*  Rev.  XIII:   18, 


2o6        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

(5).  Conjuring  by  phrases.  The  favorite 
words  of  the  apocalyptic  style  recur  again  and 
again  ;  and  as  the  style  has  found  a  later  follow- 
ing have  become  a  cherished  heavenly  termin- 
ology. The  Kingdom,  the  Coming  of  Christ,  the 
Day  of  Judgment,  the  last  Assize,  the  Millen- 
nium :  not  to  count  the  lesser  spirits — the 
Dragon,  the  Scarlet  Woman  ;  and  again  the  first 
and  second  Resurrection,  and  '  Jerusalem  '  as 
summing  up  all  possible  blessings. 

3.  The  influence  of  the  apocalyptic  style  lasts 
oil. — It  carries  over  from  the  Old  Testament  to 
the  New,  from  the  New  Testament  to  Christian 
thinking,  features  both  in  their  expression  and 
in  their  existence  utterly  obsolete.  It  has 
fastened  on  to  Christianity  a  passing,  shall  we 
say  a  grotesque,  conception  of  religion,  with 
what  appears  to  be  a  permanent  hold.  To  our 
religious  thought,  personal  religion  has  become 
a  scheme,  and  in  that  scheme  looms  up,  some- 
times as  its  consummation,  oftener  as  its  warn- 
ing. Death  and  the  Second  Coming  and  the 
Last  Day.     Our  aptitude  for  spiritual   duty  sur- 


IN  THE  APOCAL  YPTIC  STYLE  20/ 

renders  to  a  consecrated  Waiting,  under  the 
spell  of  the  same  inheritance.  And  our  Chris- 
tian reasoning  on  the  method  of  the  divine  gov- 
ernment is  moulded  in  the  same  distorted  and 
unreal  conception. 

You  may  say  that,  after  all,  our  Christianity 
does  not  take  seriously  its  apocalyptic  inherit- 
ance. Deal  with  men  as  preacher  or  pastor; 
deal  with  your  own  soul  in  the  attempt  to  formu- 
late your  Christian  conceptions,  and  see  !  Let 
the  season  of  Advent  recur ;  let  the  stated  re- 
vival time  of  Lent  come  round  or  a  special  revival 
be  stirred  in  your  midst  by  God's  Spirit ; — 
Christian  life  will  make  the  endeavor  to  form 
itself  on  these  same  unsolved  and  outgrown 
enigmas,  and  Christian  thinking  labor  to  corres- 
pond thereto.  There  is  a  distinct  loss  in  trying 
to  mould  Christian  life  and  Christian  belief  after 
these  outofrovvn  and  unmeaning  fashions.  As 
matter  of  fact  we  do  not  become  good  that  way, 
nor  believe  in  those  things  as  Christian  realities. 
Yet  what  is  it  to  be  a  Christian,  how  does  one 
become  a    Christian,   what    does    the    Christian 


2o8       THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

believe  at  bottom  about  the  future  of  the  soul's 
life?  Why  do  we  keep  on  talking  as  if  these 
apocalyptic  methods  were  Christianity's  perma- 
nent blessing  ?  Why  do  we  not  find  present 
day  ways  of  telling  present  day  experiences  ? 
This  is  all  the  Christianity  that  many  presum- 
ably Christian  people  have.  It  may  be  put  in 
one  vigorous  term — it  is  a  religion  of  Catastro- 
phes :  Something  outside  his  own  power,  hap- 
pening to  a  man  when  he  is  converted,  when  he 
comes  to  himself  in  judgment  and  immortality. 
It  is  what  we  give  as  religion  to  our  children,  to 
our  fellows  coming  to  us  with  inquiry  or  criti- 
cism. Its  prevalence  imparts  an  unreality  to  our 
whole  religious  life.  Unreal  though  it  be,  it  is 
vehemently  contended  for.  We  need  not  point 
to  Montanists  of  Tertullian's  time,  or  to  the 
Chiliasts  of  the  tenth  century,  or  to  the  Second 
Adventist  of  one  hundred  years  ago.  The 
early  years  of  my  own  ministry  were  fired  with  a 
millenial  revival.  I  have  yet  on  file  sermons  of 
my  own  aglow  with  the  ardor  of  conferences  in 
which   the  elder  Tyng  and  other  of  our  wise 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  209 

fathers  and  brethren  went  the  full  length  of 
identifying  the  Christian  Gospel  with  its  apoc- 
alyptic shroud. 

We  go  further.  Such  an  identification  is  a 
disloyalty  to  the  Gospel  itself.  That  disloyalty 
was  avowed  in  these  notable  conferences  of 
which  I  speak,  held  in  the  later  seventies.  The 
disloyalty  takes  the  form  of  discouragement  and 
distrust  as  it  begins  by  pronouncing  the  Gospel 
of  the  Incarnation  a  failure.  A  tone  of  regret 
over  that  failure  changes  almost  into  a  tone  of 
exultation:  ''we  find,"  it  seems  to  say,  ''this 
failure  to  have  been  expected  and  anticipated. 
What  Jesus  could  not  accomplish  by  His  life 
and  death  and  resurrection  and  giving  of  His 
Spirit  at  Pentecost  He  will  now  accomplish  by 
some  new  and  awful  phenomenon.  He  is  about 
to  appear  in  the  clouds,  and  awe  into  submission 
by  such  an  Epiphany,  those  whom  He  could  not 
win  by  His  earlier  manifestation."  So  a  blaze 
of  glory  shall  succeed,  where  a  life  spent  going 
about  doing  good  has  failed.  Is  that  the  Gospel  ? 
"  The  Galilean   Prophet  "  says  Martineau  "  had 


210      THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

been  taken  into  retreat  till  He  could  fulfil  the 
prophecies."  *  Even  an  earlier  prophet  could 
have  told  us  that  God's  highest  manifestation  of 
Himself  is  not  in  the  earthquake,  nor  in  the  fire, 
nor  in  the  thunder,  but  in  the  still  small  voice. 
If  God  may  not  save  man  by  manifesting  Him- 
self in  man  as  man,  then  man  must  go  unsaved  ; 
for  the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  is  the 
one  complete  divine  manifestation  that  has  been 
vouchsafed  us.  A  catastrophic  religion  misses 
the  very  secret  of  the  Gospel,  fails  to  be  a  per- 
manent religion. 

4.  All  this  said  and  said  strongly,  it  remains 
to  be  said  and  with  equal  earnestness  that  the 
apocalyptic  idea  and  style  alike  have  their  vahte. 

We  can  spare  neither  Daniel  nor  Revelation 
as  books,  nor  yet  the  apocalyptic  phraseology  as 
it  is  scattered  through  the  Bible,  from  our 
Sacred  Volume.  A  broader  wisdom  than  we 
have  thus  far  been  criticizing  in  this  lecture  has 
retained  it.      It  only  requires  in  its  use  a  censor- 


*  Martineau.     Seat  of  Authority  of  Religion,  395. 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  211 

ship  which  values  its  word,  but  fears  not  to  pass 
judgment  where  judgment  is  necessary. 

We  must  put  the  Apocalypse,  whether  book 
or  style,  in  its  right  place :  not  with  history, 
with  record  of  fact,  or  with  prose  ;  but  with 
poetry  and  vision.  In  its  literary  aspect  we 
should  deal  with  it  as  we  deal  with  hymns.  We 
do  not  sing  theology,  though  hymn-writers  often 
try  to  force  their  theology  on  us  under  that 
guise.  If  it  be  a  good  hymn  the  whole  Chris- 
tian world  will  unite  in  singing  it,  and  discount 
its  theology  as  temporary.  We  Christian  teach- 
ers and  thinkers  today  are  never  to  fail  in  our 
consciousness  that  the  historic  Creeds  are  prima- 
rily great  hymns  of  praise :  therein  they  stand 
apart  from  temporary  Confessions  of  Faith,  and 
therefore  belong  to  universal  Christianity. 

Poetry  and  vision  are  invaluable,  but  their 
truth  and  comfort  are  to  be  disentangled  from 
any  passing  expression  of  it ;  that  expression  took 
its  color  from  the  outward  circumstances  as  well 
as  from  the  culture  and  intelligence  of  the  age 
in    which   it    appeared.      '*  It    is,    indeed,    worth 


212       THE    TEMPORARY  AND   THE  PERMANENT 

noticing,"  writes  Bartlett  in  the  Letter  and 
the  Spirit,  "  to  how  great  an  extent  Christian 
eschatology  has  been  moulded  by  such  circum- 
stances. In  days  of  oppression  and  persecution 
men  have  drawn  comfort  and  hope  from  the 
thought  that  Christ's  coming  could  not  be  long 
delayed,  and  have  cried,  '  Lord  Jesus  come 
quickly,'  and  have  looked  eagerly  for  the  sign 
of  the  Son  of  Man  in  heaven.  In  days  when 
theology  was  systematized  and  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  assumed  the  form  of  a  feudal  monarchy, 
men  imagined  a  magnificent  and  glorified  court 
of  justice,  in  which  apostles,  martyrs,  confessors, 
monks,  and  virgins  should  sit  as  assessors,  or 
more  than  assessors  with  the  Judge,  and  should 
take  part  in  the  judgment  of  the  nations  who 
should  be  gathered  at  the  judgment  Seat."  * 
This  passing  phraseology  remains  a  treasure 
despite  its  temporary  features,  if  it  be  used  as  a 
poetic  treasure,  or  a,  treasury  of  devotion.  We 
read  and  shall  read  Keble's  Christian  Year,  just 
as  it  was  written,  though  both  our  ecclesiastical 


*  Bartlett,     The  Letter  and  the  Spirit,  68,  69. 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  213 

and  theological  conceptions  may  have  parted 
from  his.  We  read  the  Imitation,  and  Holy 
Living  and  Dying,  just  as  they  are  written,  to 
warm  our  present-day  piety,  though  Its  exact 
expression  does  not  correspond  to  either  our 
feeling  or  our  reason.  We  quote  the  precise 
language  of  what  has  been  long  treasured,  or 
is  a  world  master-piece,  making  the  quotation  a 
source  of  Inspiration  and  comfort  for  times  and 
thoughts  far  removed.  Passing  conscientious 
judgment  on  the  worthlessness  for  Christian  edi- 
fication of  much  of  the  book  of  Revelation,  we 
come  back  at  the  bedside  of  the  sick,  In  the 
house  of  the  mourner,  when  we  summon  the 
awakened  soul  to  Christian  disclpleship,  to  its 
matchless  pictures  ;  we  repeat  Its  words  with  a 
tenderness  never  lost  from  our  hearts  ;  we  sing 
of  pearly  gates  and  heaven  built  walls  with  a 
new  resolve  to  run  with  patience  the  race  that  Is 
set  before  us,  ''  And  the  Spirit  and  the  bride  say, 
Come.  And  let  him  that  heareth  say.  Come. 
And  let  him  that  is  athlrst  come.  And  whoso- 
ever will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life  freely."  * 
*Rev.  XXII  :  17. 


214        THE   TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

The  value  that  we  thus  put  on  apocalyptic 
writing  in  the  New  Testament,  a  value  best 
illustrated  by  the  use  we  make  of  poetry,  is 
closely  allied  to  the  service  rendered  to  religion 
by  mysticism.  Christian  thought  has  modified 
its  attitude  towards  mysticism  very  markedly 
today.  That  attitude  neither  concedes  every- 
thing to  it  on  the  one  hand  nor  sweepingly  con- 
demns on  the  other.  We  have  grown  to  realize 
its  place,  the  speciality  of  its  gift  to  gifted  souls, 
the  message  it  may  have  to  all  souls  in  hours  of 
emergency  or  attitudes  of  heart.  The  chapter 
headings  in  the  English  Bible,  notably  in  the 
Song  of  Solomon,  do  not,  of  course,  belong 
there  as  part  of  the  Bible.  They  are  intrusions, 
if  you  please,  of  some  mystic  editor's  idea  of 
the  chapter's  meaning.  If  their  composer  were 
a  true  mystic,  that  is  possessed  with  Inner  vision, 
these  headings  may  help  the  imagination  as  we 
read  the  chapter,  and  perhaps  the  Interpretation 
when  the  primary  sense  has  been  found. 

5.  In  the  light  of  these  thoughts  how  are  we 
to  deal  with  the  New  Testament  ?     We  are  to 


IN  THE  APOCAL  YPTIC  STYLE  2 1  5 

recognize  the  existence  therein  of  an  apocalyptic 
style  and  eschatological  detail.  These  are  in 
the  New  Testament  because  they  were  in  the 
current    reli2:ious    writinor    and    thinkinor  of  the 

o  o  o 

Jews.  Recognized,  we  are  to  pick  it  out,  and  ask 
what  it  means,  its  meaning  to  be  learned  from  its 
use  in  the  Old  Testament  and  from  the  interests 
on  which  men's  minds  were  set  as  they  wrote. 
Its  presence  actually  accepted,  its  meaning  so  far 
as  possible  disentangled,  it  remains  for  us  to  ask 
its  permanent  value.  In  deciding  this  we  must 
fearlessly  distinguish  the  value  of  poetry  from 
prose,  the  value  of  the  mystical  from  the  practi- 
cal. The  value  may  be  greater  than  we  have 
realized  but  it  will  be  different,  and  it  will 
demand  a  readjustment  of  ideas  of  the  greatest 
moment.  An  unreasoned  deference  to  the 
apocalyptic  style  has  given  wrong  answers  to 
such  questions  as  :  What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian  ; 
What  does  God  count  to  be  2:oodness  ;  Is  the 
order  of  the  world  proceeding  after  the  divine 
plan ;  Is  the  outlook  for  God's  children,  for 
Christ's  disciples,  one  of  courage   and  hopeful- 


2l6         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

ness  ;  Has  the  King  come  and  is  His  Kingdom 
already  set  up ;  or  are  we  still  without  a  King 
and  in  the  realm  of  the  Prince  of  the  Power  of 
Darkness  ? 

n.     Christ's  use  of  the  apocalyptic  style. 

Our  first  concern,  indeed  our  main  inter- 
est in  the  subject  before  us,  is  the  use  which 
Christ  makes  of  this  current  apocalyptical  style, 
and  the  influence  of  such  use  on  our  conception 
of  Him  and  His  teachings. 

I.  We  must  at  the  outset  concede  the  exis- 
tence of  apocalyptic  phrases  and  ideas  in  our 
Lord's  teaching,  the  assertion  of  Joh.  Weiss 
that  it  is  the  very  centre  of  Christ's  teaching,  we 
must  pronounce  extravagant.  ''It  m.ay  be  that 
Jesus  was  more  the  child  of  His  age  than  we 
have  been  accustomed  to  suppose  ;  and  ideas  or 
phrases  may  be  recovered  from  apocalyptic  liter- 
ature which  have  entered  into  His  teaching; 
but  these  are  no  more  than  the  particles  of 
inorganic  matter  which  the  plant  takes  up  into 
its  own  substance  and  transmutes  into  the  forms 
of   beauty.     Indeed,    the   more  the  apocalyptic 


IN  THE  APOCAL  YPTIC  STYLE  2 1  / 

literature  is  unearthed,  the  more  is  the  incom- 
parable originality  of  Jesus  enhanced ;  for  noth- 
ing else  in  the  whole  range  of  human  records  is 
more  utterly  wearisome  and  worthless."  *  What- 
ever use  He  made  of  it  He  touched  it  into  living 
power. 

Jesus'  use  of  the  Old  Testament  was  that  of  a 
devout  Jew  who  turned  to  it  for  comfort  in  the 
trials  through  which  He  must  pass.  He  quoted 
its  familiar  language  and  felt  therein  the  spirit 
of  saint  and  wise  man  strengthening  His  own, 
sharing  with  Him  in  the  very  utterance  His  con- 
fident trust  in  God.  This  is  precisely  what  the 
Christian  does  in  times  of  trial,  what  he  is  bid- 
den do  and  find  his  comfort ;  and  it  is  to  the 
language  of  the  book  of  Revelation,  and  of  the 
hymns  of  the  Church,  that  he  turns  in  the  hour 
of  his  sorrow  or  his  death.  Jesus  felt  the  influ- 
ence of  the  book  of  Daniel,  and  the  appeal  of  its 
mystic  language  was  more  powerful  to  Him  as 
the  shadow  deepened. 


*  Stalker's  Christology,  66-67. 


2l8         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

The  Bruce  Lectures  on  the  Eschatology  of 
Jesus  delivered  in  1903  by  Lewis  Muirhead  are 
a  singularly  sympathetic  appreciation  of  Jesus' 
use  of  the  apocalyptic  style.  One  or  two  para- 
graphs will  help  us.  *' Jesus  found  something 
in  the  book  of  Daniel,  that  responded  with 
peculiar  emphasis  to  His  own  knowledge  of 
God  and  the  Kingdom,  that  both  was  and  was 
to  be  intrusted  to  Himself."  "The  seer  in 
Daniel  contemplated  a  condition  of  national 
fortunes,  that  seemed  to  him,  in  a  secular  sense, 
desperate.  In  His  discourse  to  the  disciples 
Jesus  had  in  view  a  condition  of  secular  affairs, 
resulting  from  the  nation's  unfaithfulness  to 
God,  equally  hopeless  ;  and  when,  speaking  to 
the  disciples.  He  cited  Daniel,  I  understand 
Him  to  have  meant,  in  effect,  mainly  that  the 
pledge  of  deliverance,  given  in  that  ancient  time 
to  the  faithful,  was  still  valid."* 

Jesus,  then,  uses  the  style  of  the  apocalypse 
and  the  language  of  eschatology.     He  uses  it, 


Muirhead  Eschatology  of  Jesus,  80,  94,  95, 


IN  THE  APOCAL  YPT/C  S TVL E  2  1 9 

by  way  of  quotation  to  comfort  and  explain  to 
Himself  His  own  position  as  "Son  of  Man"; 
and  by  way  of  counsel  to  make  that  position 
clear  to  His  disciples  and  to  encourage  them  in 
carrying  on  the  work  of  the  ''  Kingdom  of  God." 
You  see  in  this  last  phrase  with  what  ease  we 
ourselves  fall  into  language,  to  which  the  adjec- 
tives ''apocalyptic"  and  *' eschatological,"  may 
be  properly  attached.  I  sometimes  wonder 
whether  our  current  Christianity  could  not  be 
vitalized  and  be  made  genuine,  if  we  foreswore 
entirely  the  use  of  "  Kingdom  of  God,"  '*  Son  of 
Man,"  and  like  traditional  phrases  which  fall  so 
glibly  from  the  tongue  and  mean  so  little  to  the 
life.  Yet  our  deeper  duty  is  to  give  a  new  birth 
to  all  the  old  words  by  discovering  their  perma- 
nent treasure.  That  is  what  Christianity,  and 
the  Church  rooted  in  history,  is  set  to  do. 

2.  What  Jesus  spoke  we  know  from  what 
the  Evangelists  recorded.  Both  in  hearing  and 
recording  His  language  all  apocalyptic  phrase- 
ology seems  to  have  held  a  special  attraction  for 
them.     Of    course    they    did    not    write    down 


220        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

everything  which  Jesus  said.  But  it  might 
appear  that  they  left  no  utterance  of  His  which 
possessed  this  apocalyptic  tone  unrecorded. 
Themselves  under  the  spell  of  both  style  and 
idea,  their  selection  of  material  and  the  form  in 
which  they  wrote  it  were  disproportionately 
colored  by  this  apocalyptic  style.  "The  disci- 
ples were  not  so  free  as  the  Master.  They  cor- 
rected prophecy.  Instead  of  one  advent  of  the 
Messiah  they  imagined  two,  the  first  in  humilia- 
tion, the  second  in  glory.  The  one  having 
been  realized,  they  expected  the  other  with  a 
more  ardent  confidence.  This  faith  in  the  im- 
minent return  of  Christ  and  of  the  end  of  the 
world  dominates  all  the  thoughts  as  well  as  the 
feelings  of  the  apostles  :  it  determines  and 
colors  their  Christianity,  their  theory  of  redemp- 
tion, their  ethics,  their  idea  of  salvation,  so  that 
to  expound  their  writings  and  estimate  the 
worth  of  their  reasonings,  the  historian  must 
always  read  them  and  explain  them  in  this 
light.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  their  Christian- 
ity merits  the  name  of  Messianic,  and  could  not 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  221 

be,  in  this  Jewish  form,  an  absolute  norm  for  all 
the  ages."  * 

We  may  be  warranted  therefore  in  holding 
that  the  Evangelists,  notably  the  Synoptists, 
exaggerated  the  number  of  Jesus's  apocalyptic 
sayings,  at  any  rate  showed  their  preference  for 
such  sayings  by  remembering  and  recording 
them  disproportionately. 

The  Master's  use  of  the  apocalyptic  style  was 
almost  purely  devotional.  The  Evangelist,  as 
he  introduces  it,  lingers  on  it,  with  an  undue 
and  curious  attachment.  The  later  New  Testa- 
ment writers,  Paul,  Peter,  James,  and  Jude — we 
put  John  one  side  for  the  time — revert  to  this 
as  their  current  style  of  telling  the  Master's 
Gospel.  And  the  Christian  Church,  as  it  con- 
structs its  liturgy  and  lectionary,  casts  a  longing 
look  backward  on  its  enigmatic  and  mysterious 
phrases.  The  Evangelists  could  make  but  one 
chapter  of  the  twenty  or  more  in  their  Gospels  a 
Discourse  by  the  Master  on  the  Last  Things. 


Sabatier,  Outlines  of  Philosophy  and  Religion,  193,  194. 


222       THE    TEMPURARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

Each  Synoptist  makes  that  chapter  a  long  one — 
yet  It  is  a  small  proportion  of  his  Gospel.  When 
the  Church  comes  to  make  her  lectionary  she 
appoints  two  of  those  chapters,  Mark  xiii  and 
Luke  xxi,  covering  precisely  the  same  ground, 
to  be  read  in  full  at  the  solemn  Sunday  morn- 
ing service,  besides  appointing  two  Gospels, 
those  for  the  Second  Sunday  in  Advent  and  the 
Sixth  after  the  Epiphany,  from  similar  sources. 
This  relegates  some  of  Jesus'  most  characteristic 
and  original  utterances  to  secondary  or  week- 
day services.  Such  selection  by  the  Church 
does  not  so  much  feed  the  spiritual  hunger  of 
her  children  as  it  reveals  her  own  love  for  the 
mysterious.  Better  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  the  comforting 
words  in  the  Upper  Chamber,  twice  read  than 
this  duplication  of  the  Abomination  of  Desola- 
tion and  the  Signs  in  the  Heavens  for  curious 
but  unedified  ears.  A  dominant  note,  this 
eschatological  one,  certainly  even  in  the  Mas- 
ter's teaching  :  but  having  its  own  corrective 
lodged  In    Itself — a    corrective  our  far-removed 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  223 

and  literal  hearing  is  unable  to  apply.  Jesus 
consecrated  an  apocalyptic  Messlanism  as  He 
consecrated  the  law  of  Moses.  But  He  spoke 
a  greater  word  of  authority  which  should  fulfil, 
interpret,  and  do  away  with  both.  He  did  not 
undermine  the  assumption  of  the  disciples,  but 
He  warned  them  of  its  danger,  and  gave  them 
something  better  to  think  about.  '*  He  lodged 
a  new  content,  a  religious  and  moral  element, 
which  must  in  the  long  run  make  them  break 
their  trammels  and  elevate  Messianism  above 
itself.  He  did  it,  as  in  every  like  case,  not  by 
negative  criticism,  but  by  the  Infusion  of  new 
life.  ^'  He  never  said  either  that  it  must  be 
abandoned  or  that  It  must  be  retained.  He 
deposited  in  it  the  new  principle  ;  but  He  left  In 
it  many  obscurities,  abandoning  to  time  and  to 
the  force  of  things  the  care  of  drawing  forth 
the  consequences  and  clearing  up  confusions."  * 
Christianity  In   all   the   centuries   has   been  so 


*  Sabatier.     Outlines  of  Philosophy  and  Religion,  i88, 
189. 


224       THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

inert  as  to  still  cling  to  the  form  without  apply- 
ing the  corrective.  Till  we  have  discovered 
what  in  the  Master's  vision  of  the  future  still 
took  the  form  of  a  treasured,  but  fantastic  piety ; 
till  from  the  apocalyptic  speech  of  even  the 
Master  Himself  we  have  winnowed  the  tem- 
porary that  we  may  save  the  permanent ;  we 
have  not  found  the  vision  that  is  to  be  the  hope 
and  encouragrement  for  all  time. 

There  are  difficulties  in  reconciling  Jesus' 
utterances  about  the  future.  The  key  has  by  no 
means  yet  been  found.  We  may  busy  ourselves 
over  the  details  of  that  Discourse  recorded  so 
fully  by  the  three  Synoptists  and  sometimes  cry 
out  in  exultation  but  more  often  in  despair. 
Says  Muirhead,  ''  Did  Jesus  not  merely  pro- 
phesy the  fall  of  the  Jewish  state,  but,  contrary 
to  the  spirit  and  manner  of  genuine  prophecy,  pre- 
dict, like  a  soothsayer,  some  of  the  actual  cir- 
cumstances? Did  He  say  that  not  even  the  Son 
knew  the  day  or  the  hour  of  the  consummation 
of  the  Kingdom,  and  yet  in  the  same  discourse 
declare  that  all  sure  signs  of  the  End  would  fall 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  22$ 

within  that  present  generation?  In  reference  to 
all  these  matters  are  we  to  see  a  greater  or  less 
degree  of  misunderstanding,  or  even  conscious 
misrepresentation,  on  the  part  of  the  Evange- 
lists ? "  *  We  may  not  allot  each  saying  with 
precision — as  has  been  the  fond  habit  of  recent 
exegesis — now  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  ; 
now  to  the  individual  soul ;  now  to  the  Coming 
of  the  Son  of  Man  and  the  end  of  the  world, 
the  end  of  the  age  and  the  consummation  of 
all  things.  This  confident,  detailed  handling 
of  Scripture  has  ceased  to  win  approval  as 
it  has  ceased  to  give  satisfaction.  If  the  word 
be  apocalyptic,  mysteriousness  is  of  its  very 
essence.  Explained  and  made  easy,  it  loses 
whatever  value  it  possessed. 

3.  We  must  make  a  more  comprehensive 
examination  of  Jesus'  sayings  about  the  future 
than  those  contained  in  the  chapters  headed  the 
Last  Things.  We  have  been  caught  by  the 
phraseology  and  the  title,  and  so  been   tempted 


*  Muirhead.     Eschatology  of  Jesus,  10,  11. 


226        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

to  feel  these  to  be  His  full  utterance  on  the 
things  that  are  to  come  to  pass.  So  reading, 
we  make  the  marks  of  the  Future  to  be  only 
suddenness  and  Immediacy.  As  we  read  again 
and  with  wider  range,  we  find  two  distinct  and 
contrasted  classes  of  sayings. 

There  are  on  the  one  hand  many  passages 
not  merely  In  the  distinctive  discourse  on  the 
Last  Things,  but  here  and  there  throughout  the 
Gospels,  which  speak  of  the  End  as  Immediate 
and  sudden.  But  side  by  side  with  these  are 
careful  utterances  of  Christ  where  a  deferred 
Coming  Is  spoken  of,  anticipated  with  equal 
insistency,  and  represented  as  far-removed.  A 
lengthened  history  Is  to  precede  it,  a  careful 
preparation  to  usher  it  In  ;  It  cannot  come  till  all 
the  world  of  God's  children  has  had  Its  chance, 
*'  the  Gospel  must  first  be  published  among  all 
nations:"  "till  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  be 
fulfilled."  Gentile  to  have  as  full  a  chance  as 
Jew !  What  ages  of  longsuffering  has  God 
given  the  Jew  !  In  view  of  such  a  word  Paul 
himself,  eager  as  he  was  for  Christ's  coming  and 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  22/ 

long  confident  of  its  immediacy,  would  never 
have  consented  to  purchase  that  blessing  at  the 
price  of  failure  of  either  Jew  or  Gentile  first  to 
hear  the  good  news.  Such  parables  as  those  of 
the  Sower,  the  Wheat  and  the  Tares,  the 
Mustard  Seed,  and  above  all  the  Seed  growing 
gradually — suggest  a  long  painstaking  process. 
A  delayed  Parousia  is  the  inevitable  inference 
from  the  Tares  and  the  Wheat,  the  Selfish 
Neighbor  and  the  Unjust  Judge  ;  from  the  oft- 
repeated  prayer,  Thy  Kingdom  come ;  from  the 
slumbering  virgins  ;  and  more  than  all  from  the 
summons  **  Watch "  which  is  the  one  abiding 
key-note  of  Christ's  outlook  on  the  future — 
whose  meaning  is  that  man  be  ready,  always 
ready,  whenever  God  speaks  to  him,  no  matter 
how  long  He  may  wait.  This  vigorous  thought 
is  splendidly  embodied  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of 
Bruce's  Kinordom  of  God.  To  Alexander  Bal- 
main  Bruce,  though  I  have  not  quoted  him  in 
set  phrase  in  these  lectures,  I  avow  myself  a 
thankful  and  humble  debtor  for  much  of  the  spirit 
and  thought  that  I  am  trying  to  express  therein. 


228      THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Each  presentation,  that  of  the  immediate  and 
of  the  delayed  parousia,  has  its  value,  the  one 
as  the  corrective  of  the  other.  The  sudden 
and  immediate  are  the  outer  marks  of  the  things 
that  are  to  be  ;  the  delayed  and  the  progressive 
belong  to  the  inner  counsels  of  Him  who  is  to 
bring  in  that  future.  We  have  made  the  grave 
mistake  of  cherishing  apocalyptic  pictures  apart 
from  the  conduct  of  men.  There  can  be  no 
"  comings  "  of  any  moral  relation  to  men's  lives 
that  have  not  been  prepared  for.  They  are  to 
men  what  men's  character  make  them  to  be,  and 
character  is  a  plant  of  slow  growth  and  gradual 
ripening.  The  Coming  of  Christ  with  all  its 
manifold  accompanyings,  has  no  value  for  par- 
tisan purposes  apart  from  its  value  in  character 
making.  '*  He  knew  nothing  of  a  shall  be  of  the 
future,  the  vision  of  which  was  dissociated  in 
His  mind  from  an  ought  to  be  of  the  present."  * 
"  Neither  shall  they  say,  lo  here  !  or,  lo  there  ! 
for,    behold,    the    Kingdom    of    God    is    within 


*  Muirhead.     Eschatology  of  Jesus,  io8. 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  229 

you."  *  A  present  and  a  progressive  stands 
over  against  a  future  and  a  sudden  ;  a  human 
and  a  local  must  be  ready  to  make  a  divine  and 
eternal  its  own. 

4.  It  remains  for  us  to  give  an  interpretation 
of  Christ's  apocalyptic  language,  which  may  put 
His  Coming  and  all  its  attendant  ideals  into 
harmony  with  the  rest  of  the  Gospel.  As  the 
Coming  of  Christ  now  stands  it  is  a  unique 
phenomenon  to  be  reconciled  if  possible,  if  not 
to  be  explained  away.  It  has  no  part  either  in 
helping  us  to  be  good  Christians  or  in  explain- 
ing God's  great  gift  of  His  Son.  It  is  there  in 
the  Gospel  and  must  just  be  reconciled  or  left 
unreconciled. 

This  proposed  interpretation  is  a  permissible 
one.  Jesus  Himself  suggests  it  as  a  corrective 
to  wrong  deductions  on  the  part  of  His  disciples. 
The  prophet  Joel  is  so  treated  by  St.  Peter  in 
his  sermon  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost ;  when  his 
word  '*  the  sun   shall    be  turned  into   darkness 


*  Luke  XVII  :  21. 


230         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

and  the  moon  into  blood,"  is  represented  as 
happening  on  that  very  day  of  grace.  And  yet 
there  stood  the  genial  sun  and  the  smiling 
moon  in  the  heavens.  "  So  shall  the  Coming  of 
the  Son  of  Man  be." 

In  one  word  this  interpretation  represents 
these  apocalyptic,  eschatological  phenomena  as 
already  here.  These  futures  may  all  be  found 
presents,  and  so  found  prove  richer  as  spiritual 
lessons.  The  Day  of  the  Lord  is  upon  us ;  not 
complete,  but  begun,  not  to  be,  but  becoming. 
There  are  to  be  crises,  epochs,  notable  external 
events,  as  signs  and  seals  that  the  process  is  on. 
These  are  like  great  growing  days  in  spring  and 
summer  time  ;  but  the  normal  process  is  gradual, 
"  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  after  that  the  full 
corn  in  the  ear."  The  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
is  just  one  world-crisis  in  which  the  sign  of  the 
Son  of  Man  in  the  Heaven  stands  out  more  clear. 
This  interpretation  makes  Christ's  Coming, 
(i).  A  present  fact :  Christ  has  come,  the 
Day  of  the  Lord  is  here.  The  sign  of  the 
*'  Son    of    Man "  has  appeared.     Caiaphas    saw 


IN  THE  A  FOCAL  YP  TIC  STYLE  2  3  I 

Him  coming  in  the  heavens,  when  he  condemned 
Him  to  the  cross,  and  heard  that  the  stone  had 
been  rolled  away.  The  consummation  of  all 
things  is  upon  us.  Judgment  has  begun.  He 
that  is  able  to  see  it,  let  him  see  It. 

(2).  A  spiritttal  fact.  How  often  must  He 
tell  this  to  His  own,  in  the  day  of  His  flesh, 
when  they  mistook  that  day  as  a  material  one  ! 
How  often  must  He  tell  it  to  Christian  hearts 
now,  when  we  count  and  weigh  religion  instead 
of  estimating  it  after  its  kind !  "  Spiritual " 
does  not  empty  a  fact  of  reality,  of  value. 
A  **  Spiritual  Presence,"  in  the  Holy  Com- 
munion is  to  the  Christian  a  more  "  Real 
Presence  "  than  transubstantlation  and  consub- 
stantiation.  The  danger  of  other  emphasis 
than  spiritual  on  Christ's  Coming  is  seen  not 
merely  in  the  follies  of  fanatics  ;  of  Adventists 
and  Millenarians — theirs  is  not  our  danger,  it 
is  seen  rather  in  a  contempt  on  the  part  of 
those  whom  we  would  influence  for  what  is 
regarded  as  necessary  orthodoxy  ;  in  holding  and 
championing  positions  that  mean  nothing  vital ; 


232       THE    TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

in  leaving  the  conversion  of  my  soul  and  the 
bringing  of  the  kingdom  home  to  me,  to  a 
catastrophe  dropping  upon  me  from  without. 
Man  loves  luck,  speculation,  even  in  religion  : 
we  will  not  have  it,  it  is  not  good  for  us.  A 
God- send  is  not  a  wind-fall. 

(3).  A  progressive  fact :  The  fact  is  started, 
is  now  going  on,  the  Kingdom  and  its  King; 
the  converts  and  their  principles :  the  judgment 
and  its  final  Issue.  There  is  nothinof  ahead  but 
what  has  already  begun.  Looking  for  some- 
thing else  is  a  mark  of  disloyalty  and  a  pledge 
of  disappointment.  A  fuller,  a  more  perfect,  a 
better  realized,  but  not  another  Coming  is  the 
last  word  of  Christian  theology  and  Christian 
living.  Am  I  not  right  ?  I  appeal  to  you  in 
what  you  really  believe ;  rather  than  what  you 
say  you  believe  ;  and  I  ask.  Does  not  the 
Resurrection  take  hold  of  the  body  that  now  is 
rather  than  of  some  long  lost  particles  of  dust  ? 
Does  not  immortality  follow  on  from  life,  heaven 
continue  what  earth  has  begun,  rather  than 
await  some  phenomenal  day  ? 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  233 

(4).  The  consummation  of  the  fact  is  coridi' 
tioned  by  majzs  resp07ise.  God  does  not  work 
alone  in  bringing  in  His  Kingdom.  Our  part 
ignored  or  forgotten,  there  is  no  kingdom  for  us 
to  talk  about.  Providence  is  not  fatalism. 
Christ's  Coming  is  brought  to  fulness  and  made 
clearer  and  more  real,  as  God's  children  are  ful- 
filling their  related  duties  in  their  place  of 
service. 

III.  In  passing  to  later  books  of  the  New 
Testament,  we  must  read  them  all  in  the  light 
of  the  Gospel.  Whatever  concession  Jesus 
made  to  the  current  fondness  for  an  apocalyptic 
style;  however  His  outlook  was  conditioned  by 
its  phraseology  of  mystery,  all  this  may  be 
unhesitatingly  affirmed  of  the  writers  of  the 
Epistles.  And  again  whatever  interpretative 
principle  illumines  His  utterance  and  makes  it  a 
permanent  message  for  all  mankind,  we  will 
gladly  apply  that  principle  to  the  more  doubtful 
sayings  of  Paul  and  Peter.  If  the  Master's 
future  facts  are  also  present  and  spiritual  facts, 
the    disciples'    pictures    must    receive  the  same 


234       THE    TEMPORARY  AND    THE  PERMANENT 

clarifying  touch,  however  bound  to  earth  their 
own  vision  may  have  been.  It  is  rarely  given 
to  a  prophet  to  see  the  future  in  its  true  perspec- 
tive:  ''Great  events  crowd  up  close  behind  one 
which  in  actual  fulfilment  are  widely  apart  in 
time." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  the  apostolic 
age  there  was  a  widely  prevailing  belief  that  the 
Second  Coming  of  the  Lord  in  visible  form,  was 
an  event  to  be  looked  for  in  their  own  time. 
How  far  this  was  a  natural  deduction  from  our 
Lord's  own  sayings  and  intended  by  Him  ;  and 
how  far  it  was  an  exaggerated  impression  to 
which  their  own  preconceptions  lent  themselves, 
Is  matter  for  curious  inquiry.  It  is  entirely  rea- 
sonable to  believe  that  this  ignorance  of  the 
early  Church  was  permitted  and  that  with  a  pur- 
pose. ''  It  stimulated  spiritual  zeal.  It  gave 
elasticity  to  apostolic  institutions  and  ordi- 
nances." ''  It  may  seem  a  paradox,"  says  San- 
day,  "but  yet  it  is  profoundly  true,  that  the 
Church  is  adapted  to  the  needs  of  every  age, 
just  because  the  original  preachers  of  Christian- 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  235 

ity  never  attempted  to  adapt  it  to  the  needs  of 
any  period  but  their  own."  *  The  corrective  of 
any  erroneous  conclusions  was  to  be  reaHzed  by 
experience.  The  early  Christianity  of  Apostles 
and  their  converts  was  to  be  forced  back  on 
spiritual  facts  and  interpretations  as  they  found 
the  uncertainty  and  inadequacy  of  their  first 
material  outlook. 

I.  If  we  find  St.  Paul,  as  we  seem  to  do,  cor- 
recting his  earlier  impression  about  the  Last 
Things  expressed  in  Thessolonians  by  the  con- 
victions of  his  death-hour  written  to  Timothy, 
we  only  see  in  him  a  process  required  of  each 
Christian  age.  Man  at  first  prefers  what  comes 
to  him  in  apocalyptic  fashion.  That  there  is 
something  better  for  him  he  will  discover  as 
these  apocalypses  serve  their  place  for  his  child- 
hood and  leave  his  manhood  crying  out  for  a 
deeper,  i.  e.,  a  more  spiritual  thing,  Paul  him- 
self in  his  own  deeper  thought  and  utterance 
threw  off  this  bondage  and  found,  for  the  great 


*  Sanday  Romans,  381. 


236        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

experiences  of  the  human  soul,  spiritual  facts,  to 
be  more  than  physical.  As  Matthew  Arnold 
says.  After  all,  Paul's  characteristic  words  are 
not  election,  predestination,  justification,  but 
"dying  with  Christ,"  *' buried  with  Christ," 
**  risen  with  Christ."  Paul  believed  in  death, 
and  resurrection  and  life  as  actual,  material 
facts,  for  Christ  and  man  ;  but  he  believed  more 
In  being  dead  unto  sin,  in  being  risen  with 
Christ,  in  putting  on  life  eternal. 

2.  Need  we  pause  with  2nd  Peter  and  Jude  ? 
Whatever  message  lies  in  their  Epistles  for 
man's  permanent  inspiration,  it  surely  is  to  be 
separated  from  a  great  amount  of  traditional 
rabbinism  such  as  Michael  and  the  Devil  disput- 
ing about  the  body  of  Moses,  from  quotations  of 
cherished  Apocalypses  such  as  Enoch  the 
seventh  from  Adam,  and  from  phraseology  run- 
ninor  with  these  to  a  like  excess  of  riot. 

3.  We  reach  the  disciple  who  leaned  on  Jesus' 
bosom.  The  name  of  St.  John  brings  us  to  a 
new  position  as  regards  the  apocalyptic  style. 

We   must  ask  as  our  first  question,  Did  the 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  237 

same  hand  that  wrote  the  Fourth  Gospel  and 
the  First  Epistle  write  also  the  book  called  the 
Apocalypse,  that  Is,  the  Revelation  ?  To  the 
casual  reader  it  seems  impossible,  and  that  if  we 
must  attribute  the  one  to  St.  John  we  must 
refuse  to  him  the  authorship  of  the  others. 
Not  even  thirty  years  of  time,  nor  new  scenes 
and  new  requirements  would  make  a  lover  of 
wild  imagery  and  fantastic  mysteries  out  of  the 
simple,  affectionate,  purposeful  writer  of  the 
Gospel  and  the  Letter.  Critical  scholarship 
may  disinter  or  even  manufacture  resemblances 
In  style  and  language  between  John's  Gospel 
and  the  book  of  Revelation,  just  as  that  same 
scholarship  may  discover  differences  where  its 
eyes  look  out  for  them  ;  but  in  some  questions 
of  authorship  the  general  impression  of  the 
sympathetic  reader  counts  for  more  than  techni- 
cal details.  At  any  rate  the  composition  of  the 
books  is  far  apart  in  time,  and  the  Gospel  Is  the 
later  written.  The  final  word  of  God's  Book 
is  not  a  vision  of  seas  and  vials  and  beasts. 
Nor  does  the  threat,    "  If   any    man  shall  take 


238         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

away  from  the  words  of  the  book  of  this  pro- 
phecy, God  shall  take  away  his  part  from  the  tree 
of  life,"*  refer  to  the  Holy  Bible  and  condemn 
any  tampering  with  its  text,  but  to  the  strange 
Apocalypse,  to  whose  enigmatic  solemnities 
cotemporary  religion  attached  undue  importance. 
There  is  little  of  Christ,  though  some  of  Paul,  in 
the  book  of  Revelation. 

The  writer  had  not  much  of  real  importance 
to  say  ;  what  he  said  he  spoke  sonorously  and 
with  an  ominous  voice.  There  is  in  Revelation 
more  of  vengeance  than  of  vision.  The  book 
has  received  a  place  of  undue  exaltation,  largely 
because  of  our  still  sharing  the  fondness  for  the 
sort  of  literature  it  exemplifies  and  the  temper 
of  heart  it  appeals  to.  Its  value  is  one  of  texts 
and  not  of  truths.  Not  for  a  moment  do  we 
deny  the  beauty  and  helpfulness  of  such  texts 
for  the  hour  of  sorrow  and  aspiration.  Its  value 
is,  as  we  have  said,  that  of  poetry.  Much  of  it 
must  be  passed  by  unused. 


*  Rev.  XXII :   19. 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  239 

John  the  aged  was  a  Seer  in  a  deeper  sense 
than  the  book  of  Revelation  uncovers  for  us ;  it 
was  reserved  for  him,  ere  the  Canon  of  the  New 
Testament  was  finally  closed,  to  bring  out  from 
the  treasury  of  his  memory  and  from  the  experi- 
ence of  his  life  and  love,  the  richer  meaning  of 
the  Master. 

Our  references  to  the  Gospels  in  this  lecture 
have  been  to  the  Synoptic  Gospels  since  it  is 
there  rather  than  in  John  that  we  find  character- 
istic apocalyptic  language.  It  is  true  that 
John's  memory  of  the  Discourse  at  the  Syna- 
gogue at  Capernaum  thrice  records  the  phrase 
''  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day."  *  On  the 
other  hand  Matthew  gives  us  a  most  distinctive 
Johannine  word.  "  All  things  have  been  deliv- 
ered unto  me  of  my  Father :  and  no  one  knoweth 
the  Son,  save  the  Father;  neither  doth  any 
know  the  Father  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whom- 
soever the   Son  willeth  to  reveal  him."  f     This 


*  John  VI  :  40,  44,  54. 
t  Matt.  XI  :  27. 


240        THE   TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

does  but  manifest  the  faithfulness  of  their 
record,  even  when  the  word  recorded  did  not  fit 
into  their  plan  or  understanding. 

John  takes  the  external  word  and  touches  it 
with  eternal  meaning.  We  read  in  John  '^  This 
is  life  eternal,  that  they  might  know  thee  the 
only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  thou 
hast  sent,"  *  and  we  realize  that  life  eternal  is  a 
mark  of  character  and  not  of  years.  We  read 
that  "He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  ever- 
lasting life,"f  and  we  realize  that  eternal  life  is 
a  present  gift.  We  read  ''  We  know  that  we 
have  passed  from  death  unto  life,  because  we 
love  the  brethren,"  %  and  we  realize  that  the  love 
of  today's  brother  is  the  test  of  life  with  God. 
We  read  ''the  hour  cometh,  and  nozv  is,  when 
the  true  worshippers  shall  worship  the  Father 
in  spirit  and  in  truth,"  §  and  we  realize  that  the 


*  John  XVII  :  3. 
t  John  III  :  36. 
X  I  John  III:  14. 
§  John  IV  :  23. 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  24 1 

resurrection  life  and  the  consciousness  of  our 
Master  is  not  something  far  off.  Life,  Death, 
The  World,  Judgment,  Freedom,  Eternity; 
Father,  Son  and  Comforter  ;  Tribulation,  Cheer, 
Peace  ; — what  a  transformed  meaning  have  they 
for  the  Christian ! — transformed  since  Jesus 
spoke  the  words,  rather  since  John  saw  what 
Jesus  meant. 

These  are  not  apocalyptic  phrases,  but  phrases 
so  to  speak  of  mysticism  ;  it  is  John's  Gospel  that 
preserves  for  us  the  best  in  the  apocalyptic 
thought  and  style ;  all  that  is  worth  preserving 
in  the  apocalyptic  may  be  said  to  be  found  in 
the  mystical.  Shall  we  say  the  permanent  in 
the  apocalyptic  is  the  mystical  ?  Paul  has 
helped  to  mediate  the  process.  There  is  a 
tendency  observable  throughout  the  whole  New 
Testament,  as  Haupt  suggestively  points  out, 
for  the  word  Eternal  (aionios)  to  pass  from  its 
quantitive  sense  of  endlessness  into  the  qualita- 
tive idea  of  supra-earthly.  This  process  attains 
its  ripeness  in  John's  Gospel;  but  "life"  and 
*'  eternal "  are  great  words  with   Paul  as  with  his 


242  THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

Master.  Even  to  the  plain  synoptist  "  Eternal 
Life  "  could  never  be  the  dreary  dreams  of  his 
old  teachers  after  he  had  heard  it  from  the 
Galilean. 

IV.     The  Mystical  and  the  Practical. 

The  mystic  is  closely  related  to  the  apo- 
calyptic. Christian  mysticism  is  eschatology 
saved  from  extravagance — The  word  mysticism 
itself  needs  and  deserves  saving :  a  new  and 
nobler  appreciation  of  the  value  of  mysticism  is 
a  growth  of  Christian  thinking  to-day.  ''  Re- 
newal of  the  study  of  mysticism  is  wholly  a 
matter  of  rejoicing." 

Christian  mysticism  has  been  defined  as  the 
doctrine  or  rather  the  experience  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  The  mystic  is  one  who  has  the  inner 
witness.     The  mystic  sees  things  to  the  bottom. 

These  are  splendid  claims  :  the  experience  of 
the  Holy  Ghost ;  the  witness  in  one's  self  ;  seeing 
things  as  they  are.  Historically,  however,  mys- 
ticism has  framed  for  itself  a  far  narrower 
definition  or  aim,  realizing  a  part  of  the  gift  of 
the  divine  spirit  at  the  expense  of  the  whole. 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  243 

Any  emphasis  in  mysticism  that  sets  it  over 
against  simple  Christianity  is  such  a  narrowing 
and  exclusive  claim.  *'  In  proportion  as  mystic- 
ism either  claims  to  be,  or  is  regarded  by  ordi- 
nary Christians  as  being,  an  abnormal  by-way  or 
by-region  of  special  experience,  rather  than  the 
realization  in  special  fulness  of  that  which  is  the 
central  inspiration  and  meaning  of  all  Christian 
life,  as  well  practical  as  contemplative  ;  in  that 
proportion  does  the  mystical  itself  become  liable 
to  various  forms  of  exaggeration  and  unhealthi- 
ness,  while  the  Christianity  which  is  content  to 
remain  non-mystical  Is  Impoverished  at  the 
centre  of  its  being.  All  Christians  profess 
belief  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  Had  only  all  Chris- 
tians understood,  and  lived  up  to,  their  belief, 
they  would  all  have  been  mystics  :  or  in  other 
words  there  would  have  been  no  mysticism."  * 
Wherever  mysticism  is  set  up  as  separate  from 
simple  Christianity,  or  a  separate  department  of 
Christian  profession,  we  must   be   recalled  from 


Moberly.     Atonement  and  Personality,  3:5,  316, 


244        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

John's  meditative  Gospel  to  Mark's  Deeds  and 
Matthew's  Words  of  the  Master.  Christ's  full 
figure  Includes  both  the  practical  and  the  mys- 
tical. In  Him  the  inward  life  makes  itself 
manifest  In  character  ;  the  interest  in  the  world's 
life  touches  the  soul  to  its  deepest  thought.  *'  It 
Is  as  truly  contemplation  as  activity,  and  activity 
as  contemplation." 

The  speculative  mysticism  of  the  disciple, 
apart  from  the  practical  purpose  of  the  Master, 
tends  to  issue  in  dreams  unrelated  to  life.  That 
is  what  we  are  tempted  to  fall  into  In  some  of  our 
special  services,  those  which  have  no  recognized 
provision  In  the  Prayer  Book.  Such  are  the 
Three  hours  Meditations  on  The  Seven  Words 
from  the  Cross,  repeated  Good  Friday  after  Good 
Friday.  The  first  observance  of  such  a  service 
may  carry  us  Into  the  inner  sanctuary  of  the 
mystic.  But  these  were  hardly  the  only  words 
Christ  spoke  from  His  Cross,  nor  do  they  exhaust 
what  the  three  hours  may  teach.  Repeated  and 
prolonged  '*  meditation  "  on  those  exact  sayings 
loses  the  life  from  the  Cross,  misses  the  spirit 
through  a  mystic  reverence  for  the  letter. 


IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC  STYLE  245 

While  the  mystic  is  the  apocalyptist  purified 
and  modified,  yet  the  final  standing  place  for 
the  Christian  will  not  rest  even  with  the  mystic 
— he  must  express  himself,  teach  his  lesson, 
and  pass  on  The  book  of  Revelation,  even  at  its 
best  ;  its  o-olden  streets  ;  its  tears  wiped  away  ; 
its  \\<c.\\  name  written  ;  its  absence  of  a  temple  ; 
its  worship,  that  rests  not  day  and  nig-ju  ;  the 
ascription  of  its  fifth  chapter  ''  Blessing  and 
honor  and  glory  and  power ; "  and  the  picture  of 
the  twenty-second  which  sometimes  seems  to  us 
to  strike  the  loftiest  note  possible  for  human 
utterance — even  these  are  not  for  all  people  and 
for  all  time  the  note  of  their  complete  harmony. 
To  hymns  of  experience  must  succeed  hymns  of 
action,  and  the  best  hymn  blends  both  in  its 
melody.  There  will  be  a  better  thing  in  the 
hereafter  than  the  ceaseless  worship  with  the 
redeemed  ;  and  that  will  be,  perhaps- — but  we 
are  using  the  words  of  another-  mystic — preach- 
ing unto  the  spirits  in  prison  with  the  Crucified. 
The  test  of  even  the  mystic's  truth  must  be, 
Does  it  find  me,  my  whole  self  ? 


246         THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

We  have  already  in  our  Christian  age,  at  least 
so  far  as  it  produces  any  real  effect  upon  our 
lives,  passed  beyond  the  apocalyptic.  We  shall 
in  due  time  also  pass  beyond  the  mystic,  a  more 
spiritual  but  not  a  final  survival.  We  must  first 
find  its  treasure  ;  we  must  hold  on  to  the  mysti- 
cal, till  the  man  of  action  has  become  the  man  of 
sympathy,  the  man  who  does  has  also  become 
the  man  who  sees ;  and  that  is  not  till  Christ, 
both  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation  and  the  Seer 
of  our  vision,  both  King  and  Prophet,  has  been 
born  in  each  one  of  us. 

Christianity  has  in  itself  a  progressive  power 
to  escape  out  of  the  bonds  of  the  temporary 
however  confining.  For  the  one  pervasive 
Christian  note,  caught  from  the  Master's  own 
word,  never  dimmed  by  apparent  failure.  Is  con- 
fidence in  the  ultimate  victory.  That  triumph- 
ant note  will  eliminate  all,  as  it  has  already 
thrown  aside  many,  marks  of  temporariness. 
For  a  little  day  we  read  the  message  as  outward, 
behold  !  the  message  is  found  to  be  a  message 
of  Christ,  and  His  full  word  never  stops  short  of 


IN  THE  APOCAL  YPTIC  STYLE  247 

the  inward.  In  the  progressive  conquest  of  final 
truth  it  is  ever  the  outward  that  must  recede 
and  the  inward  that  will  survive  ;  for  the  inward 
is  the  man,  and  to  the  man  all  these  thingrs 
belong,  and  man  is  Christ's  and  Christ  is  God's. 

The  following  quotation  from  Dr.  Hatch,  sub- 
stituting the  word  mystic  for  the  word  allegori- 
cal, forms  a  fitting  appendix  to  this  lecture. 
''  It  (the  Mystical)  survives  because  it  is  based 
upon  an  element  of  human  nature  which  is  not 
likely  to  pass  away :  whatever  be  its  value  in 
relation  to  the  literature  of  the  past,  it  is  at 
least  the  expression  in  relation  to  the  present 
that  our  lives  are  hedged  around  by  the  un- 
known, that  there  is  a  haze  about  both  our 
birth  and  our  departure,  and  that  even  the 
meaner  facts  of  life  are  linked  to  infinity,  but 
two  modern  beliefs  militate  against  it.  One  is 
that  the  thoughts  of  the  past  are  relative  to  the 
past  and  must  be  interpreted  by  it.  A  written 
word  is  no  more  than  a  spoken  word  ;  a  spoken 
word  is  taken  in  the  sense  in  which  the  speaker 
used  it  at  the  time  at  which  he  used  it.  The 
idea   that  ancient  literature  consists  of  riddles 


248        THE  TEMPORARY  AND  THE  PERMANENT 

which  it  is  the  business  of  modern  Hterature  to 
solve  has  passed  forever  away.  The  other  behef 
is  that  the  Spirit  of  God  has  not  yet  ceased  to 
speak  to  man  and  it  is  important  for  us  to  know 
not  only  what  He  told  the  men  of  other  days,  but 
also  what  He  tells  them  now.  We  can  believe 
that  there  is  a  divine  voice,  but  we  find  it  hard 
to  believe  that  it  has  died  away  to  an  echo  from 
the  Judean  hills."* 


*  Hatch.     Influence  of  Greek  Ideas,  83,  84. 


Theological  Semmary-Speer  ^-'^'^^ 


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